If I could fly
by smylealong
Summary: Orihime is leading a dual life. One within the walls of her house and one outside them. They are neatly divided. But what happens when the boundaries she created threaten to break merging her worlds? All because of one man who wouldn't leave her side.AU
1. Prologue

I am not exactly sure why, but I am obsessed with this couple. They are so interesting with each other, it's a shame Kubo didn't explore more of what their relationship could be. So here I am, writing my third fanfic based on my favourite couple. Hope you all will like it. Please read and review.

Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo.

Aiko is my OC.

11/12/11:- Correcting the grammatical errors and typos that were in the story.

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><p><strong>Prologue<strong>

The day had started out as any other day. The Sun had risen at its usual time, its heat slowly enveloping the Earth, evaporating the dew that had settled in the night. The birds had long since started their activities, hunting the worms from whatever crevices they had chosen to hide themselves in. The people around were slowly beginning to head to where ever their day was to take them to. All in all it looked like the average day which would blend into another without leaving any trace of its passing. However, for a certain little girl it felt as though the world was coming to an end. She pouted, sticking out her lower lip at her mother, her ash-grey eyes brimming up with tears.

"Orihime," her mother said in a would-be-patient voice "You have to understand, I need to do this."

On some level Aiko knew that she was asking too much of her daughter, who was still trying to understand that her father and brother had died. How was a six year old supposed to understand why her father and brother would never come back and why her mother was now going to get her a new father?

"What will papa say when he comes back?" the child's voice was quivering.

"ORIHIME!" Aiko snapped "you have to understand, your father is NOT coming back! Neither is your brother!"

"Why?" the child stomped her foot, refusing to believe.

A blind rage and helplessness took over Aiko as her hand acted of its own accord, landing forcefully on the girl's cheek. Aiko's chest twisted painfully as she watched her daughter cry and run away from her, calling out her brother's name.

"I am so sorry Hime." Aiko said clutching at her chest, tears falling from her eyes.


	2. The two faces of Orihime Inoue

Orihime's life is explained in this chapter. I had a bit of a tough time writing the silly Orihime, because I hate that person with all my heart. Let's hope I get better as I write more.

Haruki is my OC

Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo.

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><p><strong>Chapter 1-The two faces of Orihime Inoue <strong>

10 years later

Orihime stood facing the sky, her arms open, smiling as she welcomed the season's first snow that settled on her cheek and eyelashes. She had grown up to be a beautiful girl. Long ginger-colour hair that fell to her waist framed a beautiful fresh face, which was dominated by sparkling grey eyes, coupled with a small pert nose and pretty pink lips. Her figure was much fuller than an average sixteen years old.

"Orihime!"

Smiling widely she turned around to greet one of her best friends, the boisterous, short haired Tatsuki. Behind her was the other short haired boisterous girl, Rukia. Orihime loved both these girls fiercely.

"Come on, let's go." Rukia said, holding her hand.

"Where to?"

"You forgot?" Tatsuki huffed, "Really girl, I wonder where your mind stays."

Orihime giggled, "Seriously, where are we off to?" she said as the girls dragged her.

"Uryu's birthday!" the black haired girls chorused.

"Oh yes! ha ha!"

"So, what are you getting him?" Rukia asked.

"Hehe, I had actually thought of baking a cake for him, but then, when I told him I wanted to add green bell pepper, cilantro and bits of mushroom, he seemed to fall sick at the mention of the cake. I couldn't think of anything else." she pouted slightly at the end.

The other two girls shared a quick look of mortification, each silently thankful that Uryu had managed to dissuade from what sounded to be a colossal disaster of a cake. Orihime, their innocent, lovable but slightly crazy friend had weird tastes when it came to food. She would venture into grounds where none of them would dare to walk. The three girls walked to where the boys stood waiting for them. The tall, burly quiet Sado, half of whose face was covered with his hair. The red haired, tattooed and loud mouthed Renji. The lean, bespectacled, black haired Ishida and the tall orange haired Ichigo. The boy for whom Orihime had nurtured a soft spot since she was ten. The first time she'd met him, she had fallen head over heels in love with him. She had been walking in rain, when two older boys suddenly came out of nowhere and started to harass her. They probably wanted to take her sparse jewellery. Scared, Orihime took a step back, eyeing her taller assailants. She had just been wondering what to do when all of a sudden; a blast of orange came into her vision. A boy of her age was beating the two boys with a stick, screaming at them to get lost. The boys had fled as fast as they could.

"You ok?" the boy had looked at her with a scowl. And that was all it had taken for Orihime to fall head over heels in love with him.

"H-ha-happy birthday Uryuu." she muttered, her eyes stealing a look at Ichigo who stood behind him completely oblivious to the attention he was receiving as he was having an argument with Renji.

"Thanks Inoue, Tatsuki and Rukia."

Ichigo's head snapped up at Ishida's voice. "Hey girls!" he said enthusiastically.

"I-I-Ichigo," she whispered, her cheeks colouring slightly. Ichigo had a mind numbing effect on her. All she had to do was look at him, and she would become a simpering mess. He made her fingers go cold; her breath went fast, her heart erratic. He had been there with her whenever she had needed help. He had always been there as her anchor. Her support whenever she needed it. He had protected her from all the troubles. The bullies at the school, the people at the street- everything.

The seven teens sat in the diner merrily chatting with each other. Tatsuki was narrating an interesting event at the school. She was a leading member of the Karate club.

"..And then all I needed to do was give one firm kick in his you-know-what. He just went limp with a humph!"

Everyone except Orihime was laughing, wiping tears off their face.

"Oh God Tatsuki!" Renji said laughing "I need to be careful around you, for the sake of my future gene..." he stopped suddenly, his face bereft of all smile. Ichigo had kicked him firmly from under the table. He glared at the red head and flicked his eyes at Orihime.

Orihime instinctively knew what Ichigo had just done. He had protected her yet again from something that he deemed unsuitable for her ears. She smiled internally, knowing that she could always rely on Ichigo for saving her from everything. Those shoulders which took her burdens from her and shouldered them for her.

_If only he knew!_ She thought, and then scolded herself mentally, those were forbidden grounds. She was not to think in those terms. Somethings were never supposed to be known.

"Hey Inoue," Rukia said, suddenly, as though she'd just thought of something "I am thinking of a sleep-over at my place. Tatsuki's coming, as is Chizuru and my two other friends from the apartment, Rangiku and Momo. You know them right? Join us, it will be fun!"

"Oh Rukia," she said, her smile genuine "I could get some red bean paste and mashed sweet potatoes with lots of cream and celery. Oh and I will get some fruits to go with it too."

"Err.."

"That's ok," Tatsuki jumped in hurriedly "You don't have to get food, just tell us you will come."

"I wish," she said with large puppy dog eyes "But you know I cannot. My..My uncle won't allow it."

"Can you atleast ask him?" Rukia pleaded. "You never go out with us."

"That's not true," she said in a high pitched voice "I am here."

"Yes, but that's because it's in broad daylight." Renji interjected.

"You know my uncle doesn't want me stepping out of the house after sunset."

"He's crazy." Rukia muttered under her breath.

"Hey, cut it out guys." Ichigo said, "She can't come because her uncle won't allow it. Now you all don't go forcing her, she'll feel bad."

"Ic-ic-Ichigo, th-th-thanks."

She remained silent throughout the meal, stealing glances at Ichigo, who was busy chatting with Rukia.

Later Renji and Sado walked her to her house. Calling the thing a house would be an understatement, it was a mansion, with huge sprawling grounds and an imposing facade. The Sosuke mansion- Las Noches. Orihime paused before the large ornate gates and turned to her two friends. She smiled and said,

"Thank you so much."

"Never mind, as it is the streets aren't safe these days."

She smiled wider and said "I am so glad I have you all. See you all later."

She enthusiastically waved at them till they had vanished from the line of sight, then turned and pressed the buzzer next to the gates.

"Who's it?" An annoyed voice came over the speaker situated next to the button.

"Orihime Inoue."

"Come in." The gates opened almost noiselessly.

The gates closed behind her.

_My home_ she thought _my prison._

"Miss Inoue." A voice came from her side as she was making her way to the mansion.

She turned around to the servant, letting him know that he had her attention.

"Lord Aizen requests your presence."

She nodded, her fists clenched. Requests? Was that a joke? Aizen never requested, he commanded. Sighing she walked over to his chambers. He had converted a huge room of his chambers into his office, where he held all his meetings. She knocked on the door, waited for a reply. When none came after several knocks she did not get a reply, she pushed open the door only to find the room empty.

_Huh? That's weird. Where could he possibly be? _

"Miss inoue?" It was another servant who had walked in with some papers.

"Where is he?"

"You mean Lord Aizen?"

"Who else would I be looking for here?"

"He's in the conference hall."

"Conference hall? Ok, thanks."

That was very weird, why was he in the conference room? _Well,_ she told herself philosophically,_I'll find out soon_.

She knocked the door of the conference room and a silky voice replied

"Enter."

She pushed the massive doors opened and was immediately taken by how dark the room was. She blinked the lights dancing in front of her, looked at the occupants of the room and gasped.

_The Espada? What are they doing here?_ She wondered, feeling all the twelve pairs of eyes on her. She felt like she was in a very bright and very uncomfortable spotlight.

"I could come by later if you are busy."

"Aah no no Miss Inoue. I am never too busy for you. Come, sit here." He said, pointing at a seat next to him near the head of the table.

The last thing she wanted was to be a part of an Espada meeting. The Espada were the elite group of ten mercenaries who were under Aizen's command. While she was used to seeing one or two of the lower ranking Espadas once in a while, all the ten of them under one roof was not good news. Definitely not! Feeling extremely uncomfortable she walked the length of the room, wishing that the occupants of the room would look elsewhere. She knew it was not a very nice thought, but she was secretly glad that Tousen was blind. That meant at least one less pair of eyes. Not that twelve pairs were any better than thirteen pairs, but it still made her feel better. After what felt like an eternity, she sat down on the seat, only to realise; it was the worst possible seat she could have had the misfortune of sitting in. She was sitting at the corner of a long rectangular table, sandwiched between Aizen Souske and Ulquiorra Schiffer.

"So, what's this all about?" She asked.

"Would you like something to drink, cousin?" Aizen asked politely, smirking at her.

"No, thank you." she declined with equal politeness, thinking that two could play the same game.

Aizen's eyes narrowed fractionally that promised retribution for her cheek. She didn't care. She'd just scored one point.

"So, what is this all about?" She repeated herself in the general direction, avoiding looking to her left and meeting the eyes of the Espada she hated the most.

"Gin." Aizen looked at his right hand man.

Gin cleared his throat and said "As you know, Lord Aizen's moved into politics recently. But you see, there are people who do not like his increasing popularity. We have just received a death threat for Haruki."

"Haruki?" Orihime was puzzled. Haruki was Aizen's four year old daughter. While she was a perfect brat and spoiled to the core, she was still innocent of Aizen's crimes and political ambitions. She hated it that a small child was now the target of some insane political/criminal vendetta.

"Yes, sad as it is, this is the truth." Gin said.

"So the Espada are here for Haruki's protection?" She knew Aizen was over-protective of his daughter, but this time she couldn't blame him. With the Espada watching over the child's back, Aizen would definitely sleep better at night.

"In a nutshell, yes." Aizen said. He then nodded at the Espada who understood that the meeting was over and filed out of the room quietly.

"Ulquiorra." Aizen called out.

The Espada turned around, "Yes my lord?"

"Remember my instructions. They begin as soon as Ms Inoue steps out of this room."

"Yes my Lord." Saying so, the man bowed and left.

"What starts as soon as I leave?" She demanded as soon as Gin and Tousen too had taken their leave.

"Aah cousin..." Aizen said smoothly.

"Oh please! Cut it out. Let's not continue the charade within a closed room where it's just the two of us, _Father!_" She spat out the last word.

He chuckled and said "Really Orihime, you have grown to be a feisty young woman. Who would have thought the poor little helpless sapling that Aiko brought with her..."

"You will NOT take my mother's name with your filthy tongue." her voice was glacial, her eyes embers of fire.

"Tch-Tch! That's no way to talk to your father, step-father, yes, but I am still your father. It's my duty to look after you."

"Yes, and you have done the duty splendidly," she said "I could cry tears of gratitude, only I am not given to theatrics."

Aizen chuckled.

"So, what exactly begins as soon as I step out?"

"You see," Aizen said smiling "You are Haruki's governess after all. Anyone who's researched Haruki, would know that you are one of the closest people to the child. So your protection becomes one of my top priorities. So I have assigned Ulquiorra as your personal body guard."

"What is the real reason?"

"I knew you wouldn't buy that, you are much too smart for that, but Gin thought it was worth a try."

"I repeat, what is the real reason?"

"Ulquiorra is going to keep an eye on you."

"So that I don't poison Haruki or strangle her in her sleep?"

"I suppose you could say so."

"Don't worry. If I wanted to kill anyone, I'd have done so long time ago and it wouldn't have been Haruki. Still by all means, have me spied on. Let him be my shadow till you are satisfied I am blameless, at least in this regard. I'll be damned if I let that bother me. If you have nothing more to say, there are other places I'd rather be."

Aizen dismissed her with a wave of his hand. She walked away without any salutation.

Outside, the man stood with his hands in his pockets. As soon as she stepped out, he turned around and started to follow her, almost intruding in her personal space. Why couldn't it have been Tia or Szayel? They were at least some sort of a company. They would even talk once a while. But the man following her was a wall. Quiet, expressionless and a tad creepy.

"Why don't you at least walk by my side? That way I won't feel like I am being stalked by a crazed serial killer."

The man took a couple of long strides and joined by her side. He didn't bother to look at her as they continued to walk.

"Orihime Inoue. Call me Orihime."

He didn't reply.

"How long do you think you would be following me around?"

Silence.

She sighed. The following days were going to be really long and exhausting.


	3. A shadow with a mind of it's own

**Chapter 2- The shadow with a mind of its own**

Orihime pushed the door of her room and walked in. Much to her annoyance, Ulquiorra followed right in. She resisted the urge to scream. Huffing she snatched her towel, clothes and walked into the bathroom. She closed the door and locked it just to be doubly sure that the man didn't follow her there too. When she stepped out of the shower, she found him standing next to her window, looking outside. His back straight, his hands tucked into his pockets.

"I'll be going over to Haruki's room. She should be waking up from her nap by now."

He gave no indication to have heard her, but she knew better.

"Have you ever been to Haruki's room before?" she asked him, thinking she should warn him about the overload of pink that was going to assault his vision. When he didn't respond, she thought _well, you are in for a surprise, don't tell me I didn't try to warn you._

She opened the door of the little girl's room and looked at him from the corner of her eyes. Ulquiorra's eyes widened slightly, but otherwise he remained as expression less as ever. Stifling a giggle, she walked over to the girl's bed.

Asleep was the best Orihime liked Haruki. Awake, the child could a little monster. Bending over her sleeping form, Orihime woke the child up.

"I want to shleep." Haruki muttered.

"No, you have to get up now. Or else you won't sleep in the night. And you want let anyone else sleep."

The child woke up groggily, stuck out her tongue at Orihime and jumped out of her bed. She skipped and ran over to the other end, only to collide head on with Ulquiorra's knee and fall.

"Oww."

Haruki stood up and stared at Ulquiorra, who stared back. Orihime watched the entire scene with a barely concealed grin.

"You trip me." Haruki complained and planted a kick on his shin.

"Haruki!" Orihime shouted, "He didn't trip you. You fell because you weren't seeing where you are going. That is no way to behave. Apologise."

"No!"

"I said apologise."

"NO! You are mean. He trip me. You lie. I will tell dad." The child stomped her feet.

"Haruki! You are going to get time out."

That pushed the child. She picked up the nearest toy and threw it at Orihime. Unfortunately, it was a wooden block and it hit her square on the stomach, winding her.

"Oof!" she doubled over. Then to her complete surprise, Ulquiorra kneeled and turned the child around.

"Treat people the way you want them to treat you. Hit someone again in my presence and I will hit you." His voice was low and gentle, but his eyes stared at her unblinking. The child let out a small whimper, ran out of his reach and into Orihime's arms.

"Who is he?" she asked, her lips trembling.

"That's Ulquiorra Schiffer. He's going to be with me."

"Why? I don't like him."

_You are not alone. _She thought, aloud she said "Shh! you don't say things like that, ok? Come on, let's go and play."

Later they were out in the garden where Haruki had temporarily forgotten her fear of Ulquiorra and was running around the fountain to catch a glimpse of her floating rubber ducks. Once Orihime was sure that her ward's attention was well diverted, she turned to her quiet companion.

"Thank you for what you did back there."

Finally Ulquiorra looked at her and said "Not needed. I don't stand unnecessary violence, even if the perpetrator is a child."

"Do you always speak like this?"

Ulquiorra frowned slightly but didn't respond.

"Of-course I should have added 'when you speak.'" She rolled her eyes and walked over to Haruki.

She didn't hear Ulquiorra say in hushed tone, "No, not always."

As Orihime had anticipated, putting Haruki to sleep was a major chore. The kid whined, cried and threw a huge tantrum but slowly Orihime won and the child relented. She huffed and put a blanket on the kid. Ensuring that the girl wouldn't wake up, she stretched, unaware that she was giving a fabulous view of her body to the man sitting in some distance. He simply lowered his eyes.

"Gosh! Handling a child is tough. How am I going to handle when I have one of my own?"

She hadn't expected an answer from Ulquiorra and didn't get one either. The two of them finished a quick dinner and Orihime declared that she needed to study and that Ulquiorra was free to make himself at home, so long as he remained out of her way.

As he watched the teen's back hunched over her books, his mind drifted to the time he had first met her. He had just been recruited as an Espada, the youngest to ever join the ranks at the age of sixteen. As the newest member of the group, his first duty had been to understand the Souske family and the big business that Aizen headed. Aizen controlled a vast empire that had both legal and illegal businesses running under the same roof. Gin and Tousen's jobs entailed that the two businesses did not merge and thereby Aizen escaped the eyes of the law. However that could not be done without stepping on some toes. It was the Espada's job to ensure that those people did not retaliate. The security of the Souske Family was the second duty of the Espadas, the other being silencing the particularly troublesome people without leaving a trace. Ulquiorra's rise through the rank had been meteoric. In a matter of four years, he was already the fourth Espada and it was predicted that he would soon overtake the third and second Espadas as well.

When Ulquiorra had joined, the Souske family had three members, Aizen, his wife Aiko who was heavily pregnant and a distant cousin, Orihime Inoue. Shortly after he joined, Aiko gave birth to Haruki. In all this time, he had barely caught a fleeting glimpse of Orihime. Three weeks after the baby's birth, tragedy struck. Ulquiorra was sent on an errand by a senior Espada. He had been walking down a corridor when suddenly someone bumped hard against his chest. Temporarily winded, he straightened himself and the person who had collided with him. It was Orihime Inoue. One look at her face, and he knew something was very wrong.

"Ms Inoue, what happened?"

"Ma...Ma.." she was panting, her eyes unfocused.

"What?"

"My ma...Mother...please someone help her" she wasn't aware of her surroundings.

_Her mother? Was she here as well?_ Ulquiorra was confused, but decided to address that issue later. This was obviously some kind of an emergency.

"Where is she Ms Inoue? Take me to her."

He had to repeat himself at least three times before the distressed girl realised what he was saying. She grabbed hold of his hand and dragged him down the corridor. She pushed open a door and there lied a woman in a pool of blood.

"Ma...Ma..." The girl was trying to scream but her voice wasn't with her. Instead the words came out as a hoarse whisper.

If this woman was her mother, then this wasn't a sight she was supposed to see. Ulquiorra knew that it was already too late for the woman. No one could lose that much blood and still be alive. He however quickly checked her pulse, which only confirmed what he knew. He dragged the reluctant girl away from the room and raised an alarm. By the time aid had come, the stress and trauma had already taken over the girl and she was unconscious. He picked her up and settled her on her bed, adjusting her pillows and her blanket.

It was much later that he learned that the woman was none other than Aiko, Aizen's wife, who had committed suicide by slitting her wrist. He also knew that Aizen and Aiko had been married for little over six years. It didn't take long for him to put two and two together. Orihime was Aiko's daughter from another man; a fact Aizen didn't want the world to know. Hence, the facade of a distant cousin. He was pretty sure that he was the only Espada who knew the true relationship between Aizen and Orihime, but he never let anyone know. The next time he had met Orihime, her eyes showed no signs of recognition. He knew that she had not been in any state to understand anything when he'd first met her and he decided not to remind her of it. He planned to take the secret to his grave.

However, that wasn't the only secret he planned to die with. Unbeknownst to everyone, he had nurtured a soft spot for the ginger haired girl almost ever since he first met her. He wasn't sure whether it was the trauma and secret that he had unintentionally become privy to or her fresh beauty or her fiery personality, but he had always found himself attracted to her. But he was a man of strict discipline and someone with a tough and dangerous job. He knew that allowing himself to indulge in any kind of distraction would only serve to weaken him and thereby make him susceptible. He had therefore avoided being in the same room as her, hoping that he would grow out of it. It had been almost four years, and he still hadn't grown out of it. He doubted he ever would. When Aizen had assigned him the job of spying over the girl and become a shadow of hers, it had taken all of his self-control to stop himself from screaming and running away from the room. He knew that this assignment would put his resolve to some serious test, and he was determined to emerge victorious. He had therefore tried to ignore most of her words, pretending a complete apathy to her. He hoped he could continue to do so.

"Ulquiorra." her voice broke through his reverie.

"Yes?"

"You are staring."

"Sorry." He lowered his eyes, cringing mentally.

God! She hated this man. Hated him because he brought back memories of the worst day of her life. Every time she saw him, her mind would recall the vivid image of her mother's bloodied and lifeless body. She didn't need that. It had taken all of her resolve to pretend that she hadn't recognised him the next time they met, but she knew she would never forget that face. Those green eyes, the black, unruly longish hair, with a strand falling on his face. That was the face she associated with her nightmares. A part of her knew that it really wasn't his fault; he had simply been at the wrong time and at the wrong place. But that part always lost to the unreasonable side that wanted to vent its anger at him and associated him with that incident. She was thankful that when she had pretended not to recognise him, he had played along. She didn't think she could handle being reminded of that black day ever again. But here was the reminder, sitting behind her in flesh and blood. She had been brooding when her phone rang. She was about to pick it up when he spoke up

"Put it on speaker."

Her hand paused over the answer button. Her eyes narrowed and she said "You are not going to give me a shred of privacy, are you?"

"Your privacy is a very small thing compared to the safety of the family."

"Right. My fault. How could I forget that I feature nowhere in the bigger scheme of things, that being the Sosuke family. How silly of me."

She cancelled the call and slammed her phone on the desk. Pushing her chair, she walked over to her bed and dropped herself on it. Her face buried in the pillow she said

"I take it you'll be here to watch me sleep as well?"

"Those are my orders."

"Creep!"

He continued to stare at the angry teen for a while before turning around and resuming his place by the window. It was going to be a long night for the Fourth Espada.


	4. The Friend?

Finally this is done! I had to rewrite it three times before I could get get Ulquiorra to shut up. He was being very talkative. Not a character trait of my favorite Espada. I am almost half asleep, so there might be typos, grammatical errors. please feel free to point it out.

**Lilarin: **I did include that scene you talked about. I was chucking as I wrote it. :-D Thanks for the idea.

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><p><strong>Chapter 3- The Friend?<strong>

When Orihime woke up she couldn't remember why she had been so angry in the night. She sat up on the bed and recalled everything instantly. Right there, in front of her, sitting on a chair was Ulquiorra, although currently asleep in what looked to be very uncomfortable position. Somehow, seeing him sleeping there, in a strangely twisted posture, she couldn't muster her rage. Instead she felt a surge of pity.

"It's not really his fault, is it?" she whispered to herself "He's just following orders of his employer."

Her eyes fell on his hands, which was covered in goose flesh. He was cold, and she couldn't blame him. She picked up a blanket from her closet and walked over to him. She was just about to put the blanket on him when her arm was grasped in a grip of steel.

"What do you think you are doing woman?" He whispered.

"I was just trying to be nice. I am sorry I didn't know you hated it."

His eyes softened and he let go of her hand. He stood up and said, "If you value your life, never approach a sleeping Espada. You could have been badly mutilated or dead by now."

"And yet, I live, unscathed."

"I believe you have to go to school?"

"Yes." She muttered, her anger returning. She flung the blanket on the chair he was sleeping in and ran into the bathroom. Once inside, she wanted to fling everything. She had no idea why she was so angry. For some unknown reason, she had the urge to hurt him. Surprised at her own violent reaction, she stood under the shower, trying to calm herself down.

Ten minutes later, calm and much more in control of herself, she turned the water off. She dried herself, moisturised her body and got ready. She stepped out and gasped, standing in front of her was Ulquiorra, dressed in the uniform of her school.

She stared at him for a while, her eyes wide. "Let me guess, you are coming with me to school."

He checked his reflection in the mirror adjusting his tie and didn't respond.

"How is this going to work? You coming to the school?"

"I look closest to your age group."

"You'll blend in the crowd alright, but that was the least of my concerns."

He nodded, as he continued to try and adjust the tie, which was getting more and more crooked.

"Oh for God's sake! Come here." She pulled him by the tie and started retying it for him.

"One would think you have never tied a tie."

"I haven't."

"What? Weren't you in some sort of school before you joined here?"

"I was. In training. But we didn't wear ties there."

She looked up at him and for some reason she felt her knees go slightly weak. Startled, she took a step back.

"It's done. Let's go." She hefted her bag and walked out.

After ensuring that Haruki was ready for her school as well, she walked out of the gate, not looking at the man who followed her silently.

In the folder that Ulquiorra had been provided about Orihime, it was clearly mentioned that she walked over to school with two friends Rukia Kuchiki and Tatuski Arisawa. The two black haired girls waited for her on their way to school. According to the information provided, Arisawa was one to watch out for. She was a Karate black belt, although it didn't bother him much. He had always maintained a neutral view about everyone till he had observed them very carefully and formed his own opinions. For him the world was neatly divided into three categories- his rivals, trash and the unclassified. There did exist a fourth category however, a category that was populated by just one person, and a category he had yet to name. The woman who was the sole member in that category was right now in front of him, talking animatedly to her friends. With that thought, he realised he wasn't paying attention to their conversation, which was not acceptable. He took a step closer and paid attention.

"...so much. I am not sure I can keep up with the work load."

"I know, Professor Urahara loves to keep us on our toes, he's a sadist I tell you."

"No Tatsuki," Orihime cut in "You shouldn't say that."

_What's wrong with her voice? _Ulquiorra thought, _She sounds different, somehow._

"Yeah well, whatever." Tatsuki lowered her voice "Why is that creepy looking guy following us anyway?"

"Oh! Silly me! ha ha ha. I totally forgot to introduce you all. Rukia, Tatsuki, meet Ulquiorra Schiffer. He's..a friend."

Orihime saw his eyes narrow slightly at the barely discernible pause.

"Hello." Rukia said holding her hand out, Tatsuki did likewise.

Ulquiorra merely nodded.

"He's a little shy." Orihime offered as an explanation.

"That's cute." Rukia said.

Tatsuki however hadn't taken it too well. She eyed him in a way that told Ulquiorra she was marking him as a possible opponent. He had been at both ends of the look too many times to not identify it for what it was.

Orihime picked up the icy vibe that flowed between the two and said "Let's go, we'll be late."

"Yes, let's go." Tatsuki said, giving him a once over.

As they neared the school, he saw the woman becoming strangely jumpy. She was looking around everywhere, as though she expected something to jump at her from the bushes.

"She's looking for Chizuru." Rukia offered as an explanation.

Chizuru? Ulquiorra searched his brain for the relevant data. A classmate of the woman who was a lesbian. Not much else was mentioned in the dossier. He failed to see how someone who wasn't obviously important enough to get even four lines in his dossier induced a panic like state in the woman. His question was answered almost immediately.

"Princess!" The red haired girl yelled and jumped at her, clutching her in a very tight and uncomfortable hug.

"That will be enough Chizuru." Tatsuki said as she pulled the red head off the woman.

"But I only met her."

"You meet her every day."

"Not true. I don't get to see her on weekends."

"You saw her yesterday." Rukia said wearily. Apparently this was a daily exercise.

However, Ulquiorra was confused. Looking at the red head trying to fight-off Tatsuki Arisawa's steel grip he understood that this girl had zero combat skills. The way she was twisting, she was actually doing more damage to herself. So why couldn't Orihime Inoue, who was very skilled in martial arts herself, fight off this girl. Why did Tatsuki Arisawa have to intervene? Before he could mull on it further, the little scene in front of them was interrupted by a tall bespectacled boy.

"Hello girls. Still going at it Tatsuki?"

"Hi Uryuu." Tatsuki let go off Chizuru who started massaging her hands furiously, throwing murderous looks.

Ulquiorra almost laughed. Tatsuki Arisawa could knock this girl out cold within a matter of thirty seconds, and this girl had the gall to stare at her with those eyes. She clearly didn't understand the concept of difference in strength. His eyes then moved to the new arrival. Ishida Uryuu, the smartest person in the class.

"Hello, I don't believe we have met." Ishida said, directly addressing him.

"Yeah, who is this guy?" Chizuru asked.

"Oh, he's my friend. He's new to the town. Ulquiorra Schiffer."

"Hello, welcome to Karakura High." Ishida said, thankfully not offering his hand.

The six of them walked together to the class. Actually five of them, Ulquiorra followed a couple of steps behind. They all went to their respective assigned seats, but Ulquiorra paused. For once he had no idea what to do.

Orihime noticed him standing at the door, unsure of what to do. She waved at him, caught his eye and pointed at the seat next to her. As he walked over, she saw some of the girls in the class eye him appreciatively. One of them even pointed at him and mouthed to her friends 'dibs.' Orihime was both amused and irritated by it. She knew she was amused imagining the girl's expression when she learned exactly who he was and what he did for a living. Although she couldn't figure out exactly what about the action had irritated her.

Professor Urahara was every bit the sadist Tatsuki Arisawa had made him out to be. He asked Ulquiorra to come to the front of the class and introduce himself. Frowning slightly, he walked over.

"I am Ulquiorra Schiffer."

"That's it? Listen young man, an introduction is not just your name. You have to tell more about yourself. Like about your family, your hobbies, where do you come from?" Urahara's voice might have sounded absolutely harmless, but he couldn't hide the glee from his eyes, that clearly enjoyed his student's discomfort.

"I don't have a family. I have no hobbies and I come from Heuco Mundo."

Before Urahara could trouble him any further, Ulquiorra shoved his hands into his pockets and walked away.

"Oh my. Someone's really private." he heard a voice mutter, though he had no idea who the owner was. Not that he cared.

"What's wrong with you?" Orihime asked, leaning over.

"I refuse to be scrutinized like a piece of meat on display."

She rolled her eyes and turned away from him.

At lunch, Orihime walked out without giving Ulquiorra a second glance, she knew he would follow her anyway.

"Inoue." Ichigo called out.

"I-I-Ichigo."

Ulquiorra frowned. His brain had given him Ichigo Kurosaki's relevant information almost as soon as he saw the orange haired teen, son of a doctor, has two younger sisters, moderately good at studies, athletic and for some reason popular at school. That was not what caused him to frown, what did was the change in the woman's demeanour. All of a sudden she was all shy and simpering.

"Hello Ulquiorra, welcome."

He nodded in response.

"I hear you have already rubbed off on Tatsuki's wrong side? I'd be careful if I were you."

"Thanks for the warning."

"No problem, see you around." saying so, he waved his hand and walked away.

Orihime nodded. Typical Ichigo, he wouldn't talk to her unless he needed to ensure her well-being, otherwise a greeting was all she ever got from him. A part of her was slightly upset with it, but she refused to let it bother her much. Ichigo liked Rukia, and that was the school's worst kept secret. What were Rukia's thoughts on the matter however, was completely unknown.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, except for a small but amusing incident. In between two classes, she stepped out to go to the toilet and had almost reached it, when she turned around to find Ulquiorra following her.

"Oh for God's sake, at least let me pee in private."

He had the decency to look embarrassed, even though only fleetingly, before his usual non-expression slipped back. He shrugged, turned around and walked away. Once inside the stall though, she burst out laughing.

On their way back they walked alone. Rukia had to go over to her brother's place and Tatsuki had Karate club. They were walking in complete silence, each lost in their own thoughts.

"Wait." she said suddenly, throwing her hand out. "I want cotton candy."

"What?"

"Cotton candy. Wait I'll get it." she ran over to a small shop at the side of the street and got one huge pink fluffy looking thing.

"I assumed you wouldn't want one, so I didn't get one for you."

"Thank you."

"You don't have to sound so morose. It's actually a good thing."

Ulquiorra chose to remain silent. He failed to see how spun sugar fluffed up with air and coloured with artificial colouring be good. However, her dossier had mentioned her weird tastes in food. He chalked this incident up to that. Neither of them noticed the blond who had been eyeing them from a distance, with hate filled eyes.

As they approached the Souske mansion, it had started to snow. Ulquiorra had checked the weather forecast and had therefore carried an umbrella with him. He opened it to shelter both of them. He dragged her by her arm under the umbrella, but he was surprised to see her flinch.

"Did I hurt you?" he had been taking care to be as gentle as he could.

"No. Not you."

"Sorry?"

"Nothing."

Once inside, they directly headed to the third floor, where Ulquiorra was to give Aizen the report of the first twenty-four hours. She was told to stay where she was by the Espada, as he walked into Aizen's chamber. The snow had now turned heavy. She walked over to the balustrade and leaned over to catch a few flakes on her hand. However, the sunshade seemed to be blocking it. Clicking in annoyance, she found two unsteady footholds in the design and leaned further, stretching a little more. She was about to lean a little further, when she heard a voice brusquely say "Hime!" and two hands grabbed hold of her hand and pulled her inside harshly, making her lose her balance momentarily.

She staggered and righted herself, only to find herself staring at forest green eyes, which looked angry. Very angry.

"What were you doing back there?"

"Sorry. It was stupid of me." She said when she realised she had just been saved from a horrible accident. Then something clicked.

"What did you call me just now?"

"Nothing. I hardly ever address you."

"You called me Hime." her eyes moistened slightly, "my mother was the only one who ever called me that."

He had no idea how to respond to it. He stood dumbfounded as she ran to her room.

When he came into her room a little later, he was surprised to find two servants fitting in a couch-bed into her room. Once they left, she put a blanket and one pillow on the couch.

"What is this, woman?"

"A couch-bed."

"I know that."

"This is a thank you, for saving me from my own stupidity." She smiled at him and went into the bathroom to freshen up.

Alone in the empty room, the Espada's lips quivered in a small smile.


	5. Hime

Phew! this chapter turned out darker than I had originally planned. I will have to change my ratings because it only gets darker from here.

**To my limited number of readers: **If you like my work, please tell your friends to read it too, and review it as well while they are at it. I am a glutton for reviews. I am shameless, no?

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><p><strong>Chapter 4- Hime<strong>

Ulquiorra was a light sleeper. He was woken up by a strange noise, a sort of sniffling followed by a few whispered words, and a muffled sob. He was puzzled. Who was the woman talking to? Was there someone else in the room? How had someone come in without him realizing it? Or was she talking to someone on her phone? In the faint glow of the night light, he could see that wasn't the case. Her phone was on the table. Then who was she talking to? He decided to find out. He got off his couch bed noiselessly and walked over to her. She was curled in a foetal position, with her back at him and a pillow in her arms. She was talking to the pillow and crying. He instinctively reached out to her, his hand almost touching her arm. Inches away from her, he stopped. Whatever this was, this was private. He had no right to intrude. He had barged into her world out of the blue and had forcefully taken a place. She had reacted surprisingly well to this assault. She deserved this much privacy. He withdrew his hand and walked back to his couch bed, when he heard her voice,

"Ulquiorra."

He turned his head slightly.

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For doing what you just did."

He didn't reply. He lied down on the couch bed. This job was seriously testing his resolve.

When she woke up the next morning, Ulquiorra was already dressed. He was sitting on the couch, reading something. She got off her bed and walked straight to the bathroom without acknowledging him. She took a long time in the shower, making up her mind about something that had occurred to her yesterday night. She had actually liked it when he'd called her 'Hime', admittedly he'd done so in the heat of the moment, but she had liked it. She remembered when Chizuru had tried to call her that, she'd snapped. Her mask of polite innocence had slipped and she'd told the girl curtly that her name was Orihime and that she preferred to be called thus. The girl still tried to call her that once in a while, much to her annoyance. She hadn't allowed Rukia or Tatsuki that liberty either, not that either of them ever tried to call her 'Hime', but she was sure she would not like it one bit if they started calling her that. So why him? Why did she want him to call her 'Hime'?

"Who knows, maybe because he's not as bad as I thought him to be." she muttered to herself.

It was true. He had been nothing but cordial with her since he took up the spy duty. A little aloof, but cordial. She shuddered to think what would have happened if Grimmjow or God forbid Nnoitra had landed with the job. Her mind made up, she walked out.

"Woman, you are late."

"Hime."

"What?"

"You will call me Hime."

His eyes grew wide slightly as he realised what it meant. He bowed respectfully and said "You honour me, madam."

She smiled. He was so archaic at times she wondered if he belonged to a different century.

"You talk like you are at least hundred. How old are you?"

"Ninety eight." he replied expressionlessly.

She gaped at him for a while then burst out laughing. She had no idea he had a sense of humour. He waited for her laughter to subside, drinking in the beautiful sound. Once she was normal he tilted his head towards the door.

"On one condition." she said.

He raised an eyebrow.

"You'll call me Hime."

"I will try to."

"That's good enough." She said smiling at him.

Ulquiorra was perplexed. He couldn't understand the reason of her changed behaviour. He knew that he wouldn't be able to call her what she wanted him to call her, but it was the first time she had asked something of him. He didn't want to outright deny her either.

They were indeed late to the class, as Ulquiorra had anticipated. But Orihime seemed least worried about it. Some girls gave her a dirty stare and she smiled at them. Muttering a stammering apology to the Professor, she took her seat. Ulquiorra followed the suite, only he didn't apologize. He was aware of a few piercing stares. He knew one of them would belong to Tatsuki Arisawa. He also noticed Ichigo giving him a scowling look. He didn't bother. He had never been one to worry what other people thought, he wouldn't start now.

In between classes, Ichigo approached them, his displeasure writ large on his face.

"Why were you so late?" He asked without preamble.

"Ichi-Ichigo, I-I-.." She looked at Ulquiorra for help. He did not meet her eyes.

"I..got held up." She finally said.

"With what?" he demanded.

"Th-there was something I wanted. I was just making sure I got it."

"And did you get it?"

"N...Not yet."

"What was so important that you would be late to class, Orihime?" Tatsuki had joined.

"I-it is just something I want."

"What?" Tatsuki and Ichigo chorused.

"It doesn't really matter, does it?" Ulquiorra cut in, "We were merely fifteen minutes late. Don't make such a big issue out of it."

"Listen," Ichigo cut in, clearly annoyed, "Don't get in between friends, OK?"

Ulquiorra shrugged, not bothering to reply.

"Orihime, we were so worried." Tatsuki said concerned.

"Trust me Tatsuki, I am fine."

Thankfully the Professor chose that moment to step in, effectively putting an end to the uncomfortable conversation.

At lunch, Chizuru ran up to Orihime, clutching her from behind. Unfortunately, Tatsuki was nowhere to be seen.

"Himeeee!" she chimed, "I missed you so much! Where were you?"

Ulquiorra noticed that taking advantage of Tatsuki Arisawa's absence, the girl was groping her, much to Orihime's displeasure. He didn't miss the flinch that crossed her face when the girl had hugged her.

"Chizuru, please. Don't call me that." Orihime said, struggling.

Ulquiorra watched the scene impassively for a while. He was waiting for Orihime to tackle the girl. But Orihime made no move, other than struggle. For the first time he began to doubt if the dossier on her was right. He decided it was time to intervene. With one swift movement he pried Chizuru off her, and dragged her behind him, placing himself between the two girls.

Chizuru pouted. Ignoring the red head he turned to Orihime, who looked like she was in pain.

"You alright, Hime?" He whispered.

A beautiful smile lit up her face and she said "Now I am."

"HIME?" Chizuru cut in, her voice angry "Listen you; she doesn't like being called that. Didn't you hear what she told me?"

He looked at her icily and replied, "What I do is none of your business."

"Orihime, how can you let him call you Hime? I gave you that name. It's our special name."

Ulquiorra's closed his eyes and sighed. _Just how delusional was this red head?_

"Chizuru, calm down." Orihime said, suddenly exhausted "We'll talk about this later, alright?"

The red head ran away, crying.

"Oh dear!" Orihime said as she sat down, "Now I feel bad for hurting her."

He briefly considered asking her about the pain that she seemed to be in but then decided to let the matter be. He had intervened enough.

On their way back to Las Noches, they were accosted by a blond haired boy, with jaw length hair and brown eyes. Ulquiorra recalled his name to Shinji Hirako. Only thing mentioned about this boy was that he was her classmate. To Ulquiorra, that meant he was an unknown entity, therefore someone to be treated with caution.

"Hey Schiffer."

Orihime took a step back, as Ulquiorra frowned.

"Can I have a word with you, in private?" he added meaningfully.

Curious, he took a step forward and heard Orihime back off a bit, giving them some privacy. Shinji Hirako stepped close, too close for comfort. Ulquiorra identified it for what it was, intimidation.

"I have been noticing you, pretty boy. You are getting a little too close to her. Stay away I warn you, for your own good."

"Or else?" Ulquiorra whispered silkily, matching his glare.

"I'll break every bone in your body." saying so, he held two fingers up to his own eyes and pointed them at him, signalling 'I'll be watching you."

Ulquiorra looked at Shinji till the boy had walked away.

"What was he saying?" Orihime's voice cut in.

"He likes you."

"What? Oh no! He's creepy. Have you seen the way he smiles? Oh my God!"

For the rest of the way, Orihime was animatedly telling him exactly why she hated Shinji.

Back at Las Noches, he asked her to stay outside, as he went in to give the report to Aizen. He was out within minutes.

"Lord Aizen wants to meet you."

He did not miss the fleeting look that passed her eyes, before she smiled a fake smile and said "Don't wait up for me. I'll come over to the room."

He was a little surprised. Those had been Aizen's orders too.

His intuition was saying something was wrong. There was something about Orihime that he couldn't place his finger on. She was hiding something from the rest of the world. Something that made her talk to pillows and cry into them. Something that made her a different person outside these walls. Something that made her flinch on physical contact. All of this had to add up to something. Something that he was missing. He had been with her for almost forty eight hours now, and he had seen things that she wanted to hide. Had her friends never noticed these discrepancies? Had they never noticed that her smiles around them were fake? He chided himself for the line of thought. She was his job, nothing more. It wasn't his place to understand what bothered her or why. It was none of his business. All he had to ensure that she didn't harm Haruki.

Orihime walked into her own room a little while later. Ulquiorra was sitting on his couch bed. He got up as he heard the door click. The woman walked in, without noticing him. She seemed to be in a daze. She lay down on the bed, curled up in foetal position. She flinched slightly as she drew the pillow to her and started crying.

Ulquiorra had no idea what to do. After a brief debate with himself, he decided to let the matter be. Orihime didn't step out of the room all day and thereby constraining him as well. For some reason, he had a disturbed sleep that night. A strange noise woke him up later. In the night lamp's light, he saw a sight that chilled him to his bones. Orihime was sitting on her bed, her legs crossed, and her long hair hanging around her in complete disarray. She had something shiny in her right hand and her left wrist was exposed. Quick as a cat, he jumped from his bed and grasped her hands.

"What the hell are you doing?" he growled.

"Let me go!" she screamed, there was a cut on her wrist already which was bleeding, although not profusely.

He tried to wrestle the knife from her hand, which she held in a surprisingly strong grasp. Her eyes were unfocused.

"Let me go!" she said, twisting herself and kicking him hard. It was a kick from someone who obviously knew what they were doing. If he hadn't moved in the last minute, her kick would have landed straight in his groin. He quickly turned her around, pinning her face down on the bed, wresting the knife from her hand and throwing it away. Using his momentary distraction, she twisted her lithe body away from him and attacked him, in a crazed frenzy, scratching him with her nails. It took him a few seconds to hold off her hands, but he knew she was not in her senses. He did the only thing he could think of at that time. He slapped her hard across her face. That took the fight out of her; she crumpled into his arms crying. He held her there for the longest of time. It was a while before he realised she had fallen asleep. Placing her on the bed gently he whispered,

"What happened to you, Hime?"


	6. Under the stars

After the previous heavy duty chapter, here's a lighter one. Here I have projected a bit of myself into Ulquiorra. I love staring at the stars for hours, finding out constellations. I projected a bit of myself into Orihime too in a previous chapter, where she was about to fall off the balcony? I am like that. Very accident prone. That said, enjoy this lighter chapter before I delve deeper and darker.

PS: That sounded ominous. Was completely unintentional.

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><p><strong>Chapter 5- Under the stars<strong>

Four days later

Ulquiorra stood in front of the mirror, tying his tie. He had still not managed to learn to tie it properly, but it was not bad. He was sure he would pick it up in with a few more tries. He undid it and started to do it all over again, his brows furrowed in concentration.

Orihime stepped out of the bathroom, fully dressed. She walked over and made her bed in absolute silence. His eyes quickly flicked to her wrist before returning to the tie. He had expected her to feign ignorance about the whole thing next day. But she approached him next day and had thanked him. She had been very closed and aloof since then, talking to him only when it was absolutely necessary, otherwise she ignored him completely, resulting in a very awkward weekend. It was ironical that Ulquiorra found the silence uncomfortable. But he was never one to force his company on someone who didn't want it, so he wouldn't do it now either.

They walked together to the place where they would meet Tatsuki and Rukia. He would let the girls walk ahead and walk a few steps behind them. He would keep an ear on their conversation, but he knew by now that it was pointless. Orihime wouldn't say a word to either of them, other than greeting them, and the two girls would keep talking incessantly over trivial stuff. He hadn't expected it to be any different today either. At a signal crossing, he noticed that Rukia Kuchiki fell a little behind, as she was talking to someone on her cell phone. He waited till her call was done and then spoke up

"Do you have any idea what's wrong with her?"

"Who? Orihime? Nothing, why?" Rukia looked puzzled.

"She's behaving, different."

"Oh don't worry about it," Rukia said waving a hand, "She gets like this once in a while. This is usually the time she misses her family. They live abroad you know. She'll be fine before you know it."

Ulquiorra was stunned. As an Espada, he knew when he was being lied to, and he knew that Rukia wasn't lying. She firmly believed that to be the truth. From everything she had said, he could draw three conclusions, one, this probably wasn't the first time she had cut herself. Two, her friends probably had no idea that she was into self-injury and three; they had no idea about her family. These two were her best friends, if they didn't know, he doubted anyone did.

Professor Urahara's voice filled the classroom but Ulquiorra's attention was elsewhere. Next to him, Orihime sat doodling on her paper. The doodles were the thing disturbing him. She was drawing knives, over and over again. After what was probably the fifteenth knife, his patience gave way. He put his hand on hers and whispered,

"Stop it."

"Don't worry," she whispered back, "I won't do that again."

He relaxed his grip but did not remove his hand.

"I know you'll stop me again." She continued, looking serious "You are way too good."

Ulquiorra frowned, a muscle ticking in his jaw that made his displeasure clear. His fingers had clenched around her hand tighter.

"Relax," she said, "I was joking."

"It wasn't funny."

"I am sorry, don't be angry."

"It's not my place to be angry at you." He whispered back.

"If you two lovebirds are done chatting, can I have your attention please?" Professor Urahara said, looking at them pointedly.

Orihime turned a bright crimson as Ulquiorra removed his hand from hers. Urahara smirked and resumed his lesson. Ulquiorra didn't miss the identical scowls on the faces of Ichigo Kurosaki and Shinji Hirako.

"Princess!" Chizuru ran to her before anyone else could reach to her at the end of the class.

"Chizuru." She replied in a monotone. Ulquiorra noticed the notebook with her doodles was nowhere to be seen.

"Why was this guy holding your hand?"

"My attention had diverted." She smiled a bright fake smile and said, "You know me, I tend to daydream. Ha ha! So he was bringing me back to planet Earth."

"Oh that's all, right? I mean there is nothing I should be worried about, right?"

Orihime didn't reply, but smiled a hollow smile.

Silently Ulquiorra vowed to himself that he would bring her real smile back.

Later that day, as they were walking out of the school, he caught a snippet of a conversation between two students, which gave him an idea. He now knew how to get that frown off her face. He had expected Shinji or Ichigo to hound them on their way back, but neither showed up, which was fine for Ulquiorra as he was preparing a plan mentally.

After Tatsuki and Rukia left, Orihime continued to walk a couple of steps in front of Ulquiorra. After an extended period of silence, she spoke suddenly,

"Ulquiorra?"

"Hmm?"

"Did I hurt you that day?"

"No."

She continued as though she hadn't heard him, "I am sorry if I did. It wasn't intentional. I hope you'll forgive me."

"You didn't hurt me woman, so there is nothing to forgive."

"Oh! Is that so?" she replied and relapsed to her silence.

Orihime went through the rest of the day in the same auto pilot as she had in the past few days. She waited for him to finish his report to Aizen, took proper care of Haruki, stayed with the child, till she had fallen asleep, put her to bed, had her dinner and then went into her room. She quickly freshened up and started studying. Ulquiorra followed her around quietly, and then waited for the right time to put his plans into motion. Sharp at eleven, he got up from his couch bed, having finished all his work for the school, and walked over to Orihime. She was done with her work as well and was staring at her book, her eyes unfocused. He stood behind her and cleared his throat.

She jumped up comically.

"Oh, it's you." She replied calming down.

"Who else? Can I make a request?"

"Sure." The false smile was back.

"Put on some warm clothes and come with me."

"That's a strange request." she said but got up from her table nevertheless. She quickly changed into a pair of jeans, a sweater and a jacket, put on her gloves, a cap and turned around to look at him.

"This is ok?"

"Perfect. Come." He was dressed similarly save a brown trench coat instead of a jacket.

He led her down the stairs towards the back of Las Noches to the place where the Espada stayed when they were in Las Noches. However, instead of taking her to the Espada quarters, he took her further down where there was a tower. It was known to everyone that Aizen's father had built that tower for the sole purpose of star gazing. He was an amateur astronomer. After the death of the man, the tower had fallen to neglect. Aizen had not broken it down because of some sentimental values.

"Where are we going, Ulquiorra?"

"You'll see."

The door to the tower was locked. Ulquiorra produced a key from his pocket and opened it.

"How did you get that key?" She asked as they stepped inside.

"I asked for it." He replied in a matter-of-fact way.

He led her through the winding staircase to the top of the tower. Panting slightly she said,

"Alright, what's the big idea?" She said, sounding a little irritated.

"Watch." was all he said as he pointed to the sky.

Orihime's eyes grew in sheer wonder. On top of her the night sky looked like a black sea that had no shores on which someone had carelessly strewn diamonds. As she looked on in awe, she noticed a bright spark streak across the sky. It was followed by another within a few seconds, followed by a third. She felt his hands on her shoulders as he gently made her sit down. Her body obeyed the command, but she couldn't take off her eyes from the celestial fireworks.

"Shooting stars!" She said, fascinated.

"Meteor Shower." He corrected her. "Lie down," he whispered sitting next to her, "You will hurt your neck otherwise."

She obeyed, mesmerized. The two of them lay in complete silence as the watched a beautiful show unfurl in front of their eyes. After a considerable length of time she spoke up,

"Thank you Ulquiorra, this is beautiful." Her voice sounded genuinely happy.

He didn't reply, just smiled slightly.

"I can't tell the constellations, you know."

"Want me to show them to you?" he asked.

"Can you?" she was excited like a child.

"Yes. See that star there?" He said pointing at one, "That's the first star. Go straight to the right, that's the second star. Now come down, vertically, third. Horizontally to the left, fourth star. Down, slightly diagonal, fifth star. Follow that angle, sixth star. Sharp diagonal downwards, seventh star. Connect the dots, you get..."

"Big Dipper!" She said her eyes alive.

For the next twenty minutes, he showed her various constellations. He would show her the stars and she would identify them happily. She was like a small child who had just discovered new toys.

"Where did you learn all this?" She asked, her breath coming out in a fog.

"My father. He used to take me out to the fields next to our house to show me stars. He cultivated the interest when I was very young."

"Where is he now?"

Ulquiorra sat up, "He died when I was three."

"Oh!" She sat up as well. "And your mother?"

"She died when I was born."

"I understand." she whispered.

After a period of comfortable silence she asked, "Why did you become a mercenary?"

"After my father died, a relative put me in an orphanage. A person from the training academy spotted me when I was about five. I used to get into a lot of fights. He said I was a natural. The academy took me in. The rest, as they say, is history."

"What would you have done if you weren't a mercenary?"

"Music." he replied without hesitation. "I like music. What do you want to do once you are out of school?"

"Honestly, I don't know. I sometimes wish I had wings, so that I could fly away. If I could fly, I would have started a new life. Somewhere far away from here, where no one knows me."

"Have you ever told your uncle you want to move from the city?"

"Please!" she said scathingly, "Not you too. You of all people know who he really is. Let's not uphold a lie here, when there is no one to hear us."

"I thought you didn't remember me."

"How can I ever forget?" She whispered, tears in her eyes, "She was the only one I had in this whole world. My father and brother died long ago. Every second of that day is etched into my memory, and will be till the day I die."

He had no response to that. She was crying softly into her arms, holding her knees to her chest. He let her cry for a while and then stood up. He cleared his throat again and she looked up. He offered her a hand and said,

"May I have a dance with you?"

She smiled through tears and said "No music."

He got out his cell phone and played the instrumental version of Annie's Song in it. She took his hands with a smile and followed his lead to a slow dance. He held one of her hands, the other at her waist while she had one on his shoulder. He was a graceful dancer, and led her easily. It was beautiful, it was magical. Orihime felt the magic. She almost wanted to close in the distance he kept and claim his lips in a slow sensuous kiss.

_What?_ _Where did that come from? _

She had stopped dancing abruptly. He sensed something was wrong.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes. We should go."

He didn't question her. They departed quickly. Once in the room, under her warm blanket, Orihime recalled the whole evening. She had fun, most fun she had ever had in recent times, even with the strange and scary thought that had brought the night to a screeching halt. Unknown to her, a small smile was playing on her lips.


	7. A Dream and Interaction

Someone pointed out to me, that at times, Ulquiorra seems slightly OOC. To anyone else who feels so, Ulquiorra is human; therefore I am giving more emotions than his Arrancar version. However, if it's troubling you (God knows I get very troubled when I see his pics that have him grinning like an idiot) please feel free to let me know. I'll put in all the more effort to make him seem as close as is "humanly" possible (pun intended) for him to be to his Arrancar personality.

Now that that's out of the way, enjoy the story.

Oh and I love George Clooney. No it's not random, as you'll see in the chapter.

**Update: **So I finally have reworked parts of this chapter. I was unhappy with the last effort, and have done what I could do to improve on this chapter. It's a little more fluid than the last time.

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><p><strong>Chapter 6- A Dream and Interaction <strong>

_She was running across a vast sandy desert. There was sand everywhere she saw. It was a starless sky with a crescent moon. A large white domed structure was the only feature in an otherwise barren, colourless and desolate landscape. She wasn't sure if she was running towards it or away from it, because no matter what she did, it still loomed large, straight ahead of her. Slowly something else started to come into her field of vision, a silhouette. Whoever it was, the person was too far from her to hear her. She had to get closer or something bad would happen. She ran as if her life depended on it. She ran till she could run no more. She could now make out that the person was a male. She screamed but her voice had betrayed her. Somehow the man sensed her and turned around. Seeing his face, she screamed again. This man was not who she thought he was. She needed to get away, get away before this man harmed her even more. As she turned around to run away, the man was found to be standing right in front of her. Screaming she backed away, turning to her right. He was there too as well as to her left. Soon he was everywhere and closing in. She had no escape route. A cry escaped her lips. Suddenly another figure landed in front of her. A pale man with large tear like black markings down his face, his black hair long and wild. He had two white horns on his head and his irises were yellow surrounded by green. His chest, while human had a large hole right in the centre from which a blackish blood like substance was dripping. His arms, waist and legs were covered in thick black fur that formed a coat-tail like shape at his waist. His limbs ended in claws. He even had large bat-like wings and a long black tail. He was a beast straight out of someone's nightmares. The beast turned around and asked her,_

"_Are you scared, woman?"_

"_No, I am not scared." she replied truthfully. On some level she knew she was supposed to be scared of the beast, but she wasn't. She was scared of the man who was all around her. _

_The bat-like creature extended a clawed hand at her, and she gripped it. He immediately wound his other hand around her waist, and flew. The man and his twenty or so replicas let out a scream. They couldn't follow her there. She had wings. She could fly..._

She sat up with a jolt only to realise she had had an extra vivid dream. She was panting, her considerable bosom heaving. The details of the dream were already slipping away from her grasp but she desperately tried to hold on. The dream was telling her something, she knew it, but what was it saying? The beast had seemed oddly familiar, but now, with the details fading faster than sand from a closed fist, she was no longer sure. All she knew that the dream had disturbed her greatly. She sighed and reached out for the glass of water kept on her bedside table. The digital clock on it said, 3:30am. She let out a small groan, what a time to wake up!

She looked over to the couch-bed where Ulquiorra lay sleeping. His hair looked dishevelled, a strand falling across his face. His skin was slightly pale, as though he hadn't seen enough sun. His eyelashes formed two perfect half-moons on his cheeks. One of his hands was under his head as a pillow and the other lay in front of him, closed into a loose fist. Sometime in the night, he had kicked off his sheet that lay in a tangle between his feet. His frame, much too large for the couch-bed was curled slightly, with one of his legs jutting out of the couch bed. In his sleep, his face didn't have his near perpetual frown, and it somehow made him look vulnerable. She imagined looking into those startlingly green eyes, the most fascinating aspect of his face. She had never seen anyone whose eyes were that shade of green. They were slightly unnerving, but very beautiful. She reluctantly admitted to herself that he was a very attractive man.

She continued looking at him for a little while, unsure of what to think about this man who'd become a fixture in her life. She no longer hated him, of that she was certain. In fact she found him likable. He was not what she had initially expected him to be. He was actually a very easy person to be with. Given what his job was, he could easily have been nosy and interfering in everything, and yet, he somehow managed to give her a sense of privacy. How he managed that, she had no idea. Like this evening, she knew he had figured out that something was wrong. He had figured it out the day he stopped her from cutting herself, and yet, never once had he asked her why she did what she did. When she had revealed that she did indeed remember him from that day, he hadn't asked her why she pretended otherwise. He was letting her be herself, no questions asked. He had even let her cry when she needed to. He didn't offer her shallow words of comforts. Instead he had diverted her mind with a simple act. She thought back to their impromptu dance. It was actually a very simple and friendly gesture from him, but since the dance, she had been toying with a thought. A thought that before now, she was reluctant to put words to. But something about the time and the unguarded moment made her do what she was trying not to do. Admit to herself that somewhere during the past few days, she had developed a small school-girl crush on this man.

That also explained the disturbing thought about kissing him that she had during the dance. She smiled and hugged her knees. How had things come to this? Till some time ago, she believed herself to be in love with Ichigo, then how had she developed a crush on Ulquiorra? Was it possible to love someone and yet have a crush on another?

_Why not?_ She justified, _Many married women have a crush on George Clooney, that doesn't make them love their husbands any less. _

She almost giggled at her own analogy. Across her Ulquiorra turned in his sleep.

_Yeah well, whatever._ She thought, _I just need to be normal around him, and I'll grow out of it eventually._

Deciding on that, she fell back on the bed and fell back to sleep, her dream forgotten. Across her, lying on his couch bed, Ulquiorra let out the breath he was holding. He had woken up the moment he'd heard her frightened gasp. He was scared she would try to cut herself again. He pretended to continue to sleep, his ears trained on her. She merely drank a glass of water and sat on the bed for a while, unmoving. Muttered something to herself and fallen back to sleep. He waited for her breathing to grow slow and even before he let sleep take him over.

* * *

><p>Ulquiorra woke up later than usual, only to find Orihime stepping out of the bathroom. He was annoyed at himself. This was the first time in a long while that he had overslept.<p>

"Why didn't you wake me up?"

"You told me never to approach a sleeping Espada." She said, looking at him with large innocent eyes.

His eyes narrowed slightly, and she couldn't keep up the act. She burst out laughing. He felt the corners of his mouth twitch slightly, but he maintained the scowl as he walked into the bathroom past her.

At school Orihime was totally distracted but with pleasant thoughts. She was vaguely aware of Ulquiorra throwing her a couple of strange looks, but he, predictably stayed silent. Tatsuki and Rukia however, were not so easily fooled. At lunch, Tatsuki snapped her fingers in front of her face to bring her out of her daydream.

"Really Orihime, this is heights." She said sounding both amused and annoyed. "I have seen you getting lost in daydream several times, but what's with this idiotic grin you have on your face?"

"Have you ever seen a meteor shower, Tatsuki?"

_So that was what the woman was daydreaming about all day? _Ulquiorra thought.

"No, why?"

"Oh then you must. It's absolutely beautiful. And so romantic."

"Romantic?" A new voice cut across. Renji was striding across the room to meet them all up. "I never knew you even had any inkling as to what romance was."

"How mean!" Orihime chided laughing.

"Hi Ulquiorra, am I right?"

Ulquiorra nodded.

"Oh the famous nod!" Renji said, a wide grin spreading across his face. "I have heard so much about this nod of yours. Tell me, do you ever talk."

"Renji! You are being rude." Orihime cut in.

"Hey come on, I was just curious. All this while and most people haven't even heard his voice."

"Maybe because not everyone wants to blare out every single thought, or lack thereof, that crosses their puny brains, unlike a certain tattooed red-head that we all know?" Ishida ventured joining in the banter, Ichigo following him with a wide grin on his face.

The girls all burst out laughing while Renji promised to pummel Ishida within an inch of his life.

"Make sure you don't ruin that precious hair-style of his." Ichigo said, getting murderous glares from Ishida.

"Or that preciously ridiculous white cape of his." Renji said smirking.

"Hey that's my uniform."

"It looks stupid." Rukia said.

"No it doesn't."

"Yes it does," Tatsuki joined in, "I mean white pants, really Uryuu, white pants?"

"Don't forget the white shoes." Orihime chimed in.

"Oh!" Renji said covering his eyes, "I am getting the mental picture of that awful outfit. Oh the agony!"

"You all will die painful deaths!" Ishida muttered.

Everyone collapsed into uncontrollable laughter, with tears rolling off their eyes. Ishida joined in after a while.

Ulquiorra watched the entire scene with a detached amusement, a feeling akin to a strange loneliness settling in him. Before he could stop it, a thought crossed his mind.

_I was never laughed at with so much affection._

Before he could dwell further on it, Renji wiped his tears and looked at him.

"Hey, don't mind us. We can get a little carried away at times. What was I asking you?"

To his own surprise, Ulquiorra found himself replying, "You were asking if I talk or not."

"Aah yes, but that question is now moot, isn't it? Given that you actually said a whole sentence."

"Don't mind him," Ishida said smiling, "He can be a jerk at times. You know you remind me of our friend Sado. He talks very little too."

"Speaking of which, where is Sado?" Rukia asked.

"He found an injured bird. He's taken it to the infirmary." Ichigo replied.

"Say Orihime," Renji said, looking like he was doing some serious thinking, "Aren't you glad Chizuru isn't around?"

"Hey, not nice!" Orihime said, but she was laughing.

As were everyone else around her. All in all, it was a very happy group of teens. A group in which Ulquiorra didn't belong. He decided to let them some privacy and was about to walk away, when a hand held his. Startled he turned around to find Orihime looking at him with a smile. She shook her head slightly, asking him to stay where he was. No one except Ichigo noticed the small interaction. His brow furrowed.

Orihime spend the rest of the day, smiling and laughing genuinely. She had no idea that her recurring nightmare would creep up on her by the end of the day.


	8. Orihime's nightmare

This is a dark chapter. Very dark in fact. This will give details as to what Aizen's doing to Orihime. I received a few queries about the dream in the last chapter. I would request you all to read this chapter carefully, and then go back to the dream. Maybe now, the dream will get clearer. If not, please let me know, I'll rework it. As it is, I plan to rewrite parts of the previous chapter

I am getting very encouraging response from you all, thank you so much for your response.

Please read and review.

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><p><strong>Chapter 7- Orihime's nightmare<strong>

She lay absolutely still, expressionless, consciously devoid of all thoughts. It was her defence mechanism. How else was she supposed to face her constant nightmare? Her nightmare from which there was no escape. The nightmare that had her screaming on the inside. The nightmare through which she had been forced to live all this while. She closed her eyes, in an effort to tune it out, which technically shouldn't be difficult; she had had years of practice after all. A strong punch landed on her ribs.

"Ow!"

"Respond, damnit! I hate it when you don't respond. Respond when I play." the abhorrent voice said in her ears.

She blinked back the tears and gave an adequate response that seemed to satisfy her assailant. Ten minutes later, she staggered out of the room, an uncontrollable shiver running down her body. She hugged herself to stop shivering. With heavy steps she trudged along the corridor, hating everything in and around herself. Life was unbearable. She could not take it. She had had enough. She had no idea why she was even living through this. Her mind made up, she turned around and started walking the other way.

* * *

><p>"Instincts!" Ulquiorra's trainer was fond of saying, "Trust your instincts. It can be the difference between life and death. If your gut says something is wrong, then you'd do bloody well to listen to it."<p>

To Ulquiorra, those were some of the wisest words anyone had ever told him. He made it his golden rule. He paid heed to his gut feelings, and so far they had never proven wrong. Currently, his gut was telling him that Orihime was in danger. Without a second thought, he barged out of her room and ran towards Aizen's quarters, where he had left her. As he turned into a long passage way, he spotted the ginger haired girl at the end of the passageway, climbing up the stairs. He ran after her, calling her name. She didn't seem to hear him. She had a head start on him, and although he was running fast enough, there was still quite a distance that he needed to cover before he could reach her. He was still about a flight of stairs behind her, when he saw her enter the roof terrace. Heart thumping, he ran the last flight, climbing three stairs at a time. To his horror, he found her poised for a jump. Given that there were six floors between them and the ground, he had no doubts in his mind what it was that she was trying. He grabbed her just as she had jumped.

"Leave me! Let me go!" She screamed, much like the last time.

Not paying heed to her, he dragged her flailing body inside with a lot of difficulty. But she wasn't one to go down without a fight. She bit his hand hard and wriggled out of his grip. Turning around, she aimed a punch at his solar plexus. Having anticipated it, he gripped her wrist and turned her around and pinning her hand behind her back.

"Let go off me!" She screamed.

"No I won't. Not till you calm down."

His words had not had the least bit of effect on her, as she continued to struggle against him ineffectually. He snared his other hand around her throat, effectively cutting out all her struggle. He forced her to her knees to stop her from kicking.

"Please Hime, calm down."

It was perhaps the name, or maybe it was her exhaustion with everything but she lost her will to fight. A shiver ran through her entire body and she grew limp against him. A fine layer of sweat covered her as she shivered anew. Ulquiorra relaxed his grip on her body and she retched, throwing up the contents of her stomach. He held her hair out of the way, a frown on his face. She collapsed on his knees, delirious.

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><p><em>She is six years old. Her mother has got her a new father. She is asleep in her room when her new father steps in. He wakes her up calling her name. She wakes up and asks her father why he has woken her up.<em>

"_We will play a game, alright? But it will be our little secret. You can't tell mamma, ok? Otherwise I will get very angry."_

_Eager to please her new father she agrees. He takes her tiny hands and makes her touch him between his legs. It is big and tight. She doesn't like it. She is scared._

"_I don't want to play this game father, please."_

"_Oh!" he says, closing his eyes. A smile spreads on his face, "But baby, father likes this game. Don't you want to make your father happy?"_

_She doesn't like it, but she wants to make her father happy. Her mother would not like it, if her father is unhappy. She nods, scared._

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><p>Through her haze she heard someone say "Szayel, come soon. I need your help."<p>

She knew she should recognize the voice, but she could not. Her body seemed to be on fire, but doused in ice cold water at the same time. She was overtaken by violent seizures. She felt a hand touch her forehead and someone whispered,

"Hime."

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><p><em>She is seven years old. Her father is back into her room and wants to play. She doesn't like his games. He comes to her room, takes off his pants and makes her touch him. But after she has touched him, made him groan, played his game. He lies by her side telling her stories. She likes to hear the stories, but doesn't like it when he touches her. But she doesn't say anything. Her father says he is showing her his love, and she supposes it is bad of her to think badly of her father. Today he wants to play a new game. He makes her stand and holds her head. He takes off his pants and asks her to hold him. Thinking this is the same game, she touches him. But instead he pushes it into her mouth. She gags, tears coming into her eyes. He goes in and out frequently, groaning. Something hot goes down her throat and her father shudders. Her father says he loved it. She hates it. That night she threw up multiple times.<em>

* * *

><p>She turned around and threw up again. Was there anything left in her body to throw up at all? She was vaguely aware that she was in her own room. She was also aware of two hands holding hers. She heard another vaguely familiar voice say,<p>

"Make sure she keeps drinking fluids. She shouldn't be allowed to lose her body fluids."

Another voice replied "I will."

She didn't want the second voice to stop. She wanted it to continue.

"I have given her a shot for the fever. It should go down in some time. Keep her body warm, for the chills."

She felt someone tuck a blanket around herself. She slipped back into her delirium.

* * *

><p><em>She is nine. Her father's games are getting longer and longer. She dreads the time he'll come to her room. She hears his heavy footfall and her heart beats faster. He comes in with a smile. She is about to stand up when he says,<em>

"_No no! Keep lying. We are going to play a new game." He says smoothly._

_He walks over to her and takes off his pants. She doesn't know what new game he wants to play but she doesn't want to play it. He climbs onto her bed and takes off her dress. She is about to cry, but he says that she shouldn't cry. He will get angry, and that would hurt her mother. She doesn't want to hurt her mother, so she doesn't say anything. He slowly parts her legs telling her,_

"_You'll like this game my sweetheart." He says and touches her between her legs. "You'll enjoy this so much." He says chuckling._

_Suddenly her entire being is enveloped by a blinding pain. She is about to scream when he clamps a hand over her mouth. _

"_Oh! You are so tight! So good!" He says, grunting._

_She doesn't want to play this game. She hates this game, hates her father. After a while her father groans, sits up and her pain reduces. He pats her head and says,_

"_Good girl." He wears her pants and walks away. _

_She sees blood in between her legs. She starts crying. That was the first time she cut herself in order to obliterate the pain in her mind._

* * *

><p>Her delirium broke when she realized someone was trying to make her drink water. Water! She needed water. She drank greedily, her body arching to take it all in. She was gently put on her bed and the blanket was readjusted. She felt a wet cloth wipe her face gently. A shiver ran through her body, and she felt someone hug her, controlling her, giving her warmth. In those arms, she relaxed.<p>

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><p><em>She is thirteen. It has become a routine that she will be raped by her step-father, followed by her cutting herself. Her mother had noticed the cuts once, and she had said something about an alley cat attacking her. But her mother hadn't believed it. She decided to find out the truth on her own. Her step father is in her room, raping her, when her mother walks in. Orihime would give anything to wipe off the horror on her mother's face. Aizen gets up smirking and walks away. Her mother looks at her daughter, lying naked, tears in her eyes. She walks out. Orihime quickly wears her dress, and runs after her mother. She goes in the room and finds her mother lying in a pool of blood. Her world collapses.<em>

* * *

><p>Her shivers have gone down but she doesn't want to get away from the comforting warmth of those arms. She feels safe there. She snuggles closer and feels the arms tighten around her. Someone whispers next to her ears,<p>

"Hime, calm down please."

* * *

><p><em>Its two days after her mother's death when he walks into her room. She is scared, she tries to run away, but he grabs her by her waist and slams her down on the floor hard. It hurts her. He kicks her on the stomach and says,<em>

"_You bitch! You killed my wife, now you will pay for it." _

_That night had been the most painful night. He had kicked, punched and hit her within an inch of her life before raping her continuously for more than an hour. He had always taken care not to hurt her face so that she could go to school without raising suspicion. That night she couldn't even get up to cut herself. Since then, she has been repeatedly forced to lie down under him as he played with her. All these years and nothing has changed._

* * *

><p>She was lying on something that was rock hard. Something that was moving at a steady rhythm. She realized that it was in fact the crook of Ulquiorra's arm which was wrapped around her. His other arm was at her waist. He had fallen asleep. Something told her she should be moving away from him, but she didn't want to. Lying there in his arms she felt completely at peace. This was one man who would not harm her, ever. She smiled at the irony. Here she was lying in the arms of a ruthless professional killer and she felt safe. And the one man who was supposed to have nurtured her, the one who was supposed to be her shield, he had damaged her beyond repair.<p>

Before her marriage, her mother had managed to convince her she needs to get married because if she didn't, living alone would be very difficult for them. Her income alone would not be enough to sustain both of them and give her an education as well. To a six year old, it meant that if they didn't go to the man, something bad would happen. She didn't want anything bad to happen to her and her mother. So they went to the man. But now that Aizen's real face was exposed in front of her, she wanted to get away from him, as soon as she could. But she didn't know what to do. She had a deep seated fear that if she moved away, his wrath would fall on Haruki. She couldn't let Haruki go through what she had to go through. She wouldn't wish that fate on her worst enemy, let alone an innocent child. And therefore she stayed. Living the nightmare, with no way out. Sometimes when the pain became unbearable, she had tried to take drastic measures, but Haruki's small innocent smile would float into her mind, and she would pause. She was silently thankful to Ulquiorra that he had stopped her from jumping today; otherwise she'd have done her step sister a grave injustice.

She stifled a sob that raked her whole body and instantly felt those arms tighten. She closed her eyes quickly, pretending to be asleep. She felt him move slightly and look at her. She stayed as still as she could. She felt him touch her forehead with the back of his hand, then her cheek. He slowly settled down next to her, this time not hugging her. She breathed slightly, trying to shake away the painful images that had come back to haunt her.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's note: <strong>Please note I do not abide by what Orihime's mother did. In my opinion that was very cowardly of her. She should have stood up to that bastard of a husband and protected both her daughters. But it was very important for the story that she die, and commit suicide at that. Hence she does it. But please note, I strongly advocate against suicide.


	9. The next day

**Chapter 8- The next day**

Ulquiorra Schiffer was an intelligent man. His intelligence had been one of the most defining features of his rise in the ranks of the Espada. His eyes were sharp and rarely missed anything. Connecting dots had been a speciality of his. But for the first time, he was beginning to hate his intelligence because it was presenting a frightening conclusion to him. A conclusion that he didn't want to draw. A thought that disturbed him greatly.

Sitting on his couch bed, watching a sleeping Orihime he was trying to tell himself that he was jumping to conclusions and that he no proof for this disturbing and dangerous theory. He played the events of the previous day over and over again in his mind. The day had started out perfectly well, with Orihime and her friends having fun at each other's expense. She had even spent a long time describing the meteor shower they had seen the day before yesterday to Tatsuki Airsawa. He had heard her laughter, which was a genuine one. That laughter was definitely not of a person who was contemplating suicide later that day. Then they had come back home and he gone to give his daily report to Aizen who had asked him to send in Orihime after his report and go back to Orihime's room- just like the last time. She had given him the same kind of fake smile each time and asked him to go back and that she would be back shortly. The first time she had come back, she had been in a daze and had proceeded to cut herself. The next time she had tried to commit suicide. He was therefore forced to draw the conclusion that whatever happened to make her cut herself or try to commit suicide, had to have happened during her meeting with Aizen.

His theory was further strengthened by her mutterings during her delirium. She kept repeating one phrase over and over again, "Must save Haruki. Keep him away." He had tried to tell himself that she was worried about the threat that Haruki had received, but if that were the case, she would have been in the girl's room, watching over her like a hawk. Not cut herself or jump off the roof. He had also noticed her telling Haruki repeatedly to lock her door and not open it for anybody other than herself. If it was a question of safety of the child's life, the constant presence of Barragan outside her door should have assured her. After all he was one of the best Espada, but she still asked her to lock the door. Why would anyone do that?

Also adding weight to his theory was the fact that she cringed on physical contact and that she told her friends that she missed her family who were abroad, when he knew for certain that she had no family to speak of. Her mother was the only one she had, and she was dead. To him, all this added up to only one conclusion, she was being abused and the perpetrator was her step-father, his employer Aizen Souske.

He had tried to come up with different theories, but his own brain was rejecting them as he came up with them, backing it up with some evidence. He had tried to tell himself that both times, she had received some very disturbing news. That theory held credence till he remembered Rukia Kuchiki saying that she did get depressed every now and then. That meant that her depressed state wasn't something new. Last night he had taken the liberty to check her wrists, in order to try and tell himself that her self-injury was a one-time event. Many faint slashes on her wrists looked back at him mockingly, blowing holes in his flimsy defence and giving weight to the frightening theory that he was trying desperately to find proofs to deny.

He sighed and rubbed his face, feeling faint stubble on his cheeks. He absently realised that he needed to shave. Orihime turned in her sleep and muttered something about Haruki. He sat with his elbows on his knees, his fingers crossed in front of his face. A cold fury was filling inside him. If there was one thing he hated, it was unprovoked violence of any kind, especially ones that were directed at children or the defenceless. Now he was presented with the possibility that the woman he was falling in love with was at the receiving end of it. If what he was thinking was right, it meant that she had been severely damaged by all this, and that infuriated him. He wanted to cut the man into pieces, starting from his leg and slowly making it all the way up so that the pain he felt was maximized. A part of him was telling him to calm down and gather more evidence before he did something rash, but he was unwilling to listen to that part of his. He had killed people before; it was not new to him. But till date, he had killed only when he was ordered to. Unlike some of his fellow Espada, he took no personal enjoyment in the act. It was a job that needed to be done. For the first time however, he wanted to kill someone, slowly, painfully. He became aware of a throbbing pain in his head that was threatening to turn into a full blown headache. He was debating on whether or not to have a painkiller, when a knock sounded on the door. Quickly glancing at the still sleeping girl, he walked over to the door. It was Szayel.

"How is she now?" He asked in a hushed voice.

"Much better. Fever and chills have gone down. Vomiting seems to have stopped as well."

"Good. That's really good. However I suggest she rests all day today. She was very sick yesterday."

Ulquiorra nodded.

"These are some pills, give them to her when she gets up, I have written down the dosage and instructions in this paper. These are basically to prevent the fever from coming back. Sometimes the pathogens stay in the body, suppressed because of medicines. Once the effect of the medicine wears off, they start acting again."

Ulquiorra nodded, wondering if these medicines were enough to ward off her real pathogen.

"Make sure she eats today. I'll come by later in the evening to check on her."

"Thank you, Szayel."

"Don't sweat it. It's my job." The Espada waved a hand and walked away.

Once again Ulquiorra was struck by the oddity that was Szayel Apporo Granz. Why was a doctor a mercenary? Or why was a mercenary a doctor? Weren't they two mutually contradictory professions? He shook his head. He never understood that man, probably never will. But he was grateful for him. The man was true to both his professions. He hadn't asked him a single question. He also knew that whatever had happened in the room would stay within the room. He wasn't one to blabber.

He put the medicines on her study desk and a thought crossed his mind. He quickly looked over to where Orihime was to ensure that she was still sleeping. He took one of her notebooks and started flipping through it. Throughout the book at irregular intervals, there were tiny doodles. He didn't have to look closely to know that those doodles were knives. He was surprised and a little annoyed that her seemingly overprotective friends hadn't noticed something like this. They gave him dirty looks when he held her hand, or was 'too close' to her. They bombarded her with questions when she was fifteen minutes late, but they failed to notice something as significant at this? Her cell phone (which he had put on silent mode last night) started vibrating on the table, flashing Tatsuki Arisawa's name. He let it go to voice mail. Soon enough, the phone rang again, this time flashing Rukia Kuchiki's number; he again let it go to voice mail. The two of them called another six times before stopping.

His anger was rising fast. He was worried he would actually do something rash in his rage that he might regret later. He held his head his hands and sighed. He was so focused on controlling his rage; he didn't notice Orihime wake up.

"Good morning, Ulquiorra."

He turned immediately, "How are you feeling now?"

She smiled and replied, "Fine. Much better now."

He walked up to her and touched her forehead with the back of his hand.

"The fever hasn't returned. That's good." He frowned, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

She was looking at him with a small smile and a soft look in her eyes.

"Thank you" She whispered "Thank you for everything."

He closed his eyes and shook his head, "You go and freshen up. I'll arrange for some food for you."

"I will. In a bit. But before that, can I ask something of you?"

He frowned. Smiling she held out a hand and said,

"Friends?"

It was the first time she saw him smile as he took her hand and said, "Friends."

As she walked over to the bathroom, her fatigue took over and she stumbled. Ulquiorra was at her side instantly, holding her.

"Thanks." She replied, that soft look was back in her eyes. For some reason that look was unsettling him.

"Can you walk over to the bathroom?"

"Yes, I can."

Ulquiorra looked at her as she walked into the bathroom. He was amazed at how quickly she had reduced the anger that he was having a tough time to control. A couple of smiles and a shake of her hands was all it took for him to calm down to some extent.

Orihime stood in the shower hugging herself. She allowed herself a small smile as she thought about the man who was outside. The man who was beginning to fill her senses in a way no one else had done so far, not even Ichigo. Her feelings for Ichigo were starting to pale in front of these new feelings that were beginning to stir within her. She had earlier tried to dismiss them as a school girl crush, but yesterday night proved that they ran deeper than that. She had felt comfortable in his arms, a comfort she didn't think she would find with any man. She had in fact sought out his touch. To validate her own theory, she had even stumbled deliberately. It was as she had predicted, he was right next to her, holding her and she didn't cringe or shy away from his touch. Instead she craved it. Craved it in a way she never craved Ichigo's touch.

"Careful Orihime Inoue," she told herself, "don't fall for this man."

Uryuu disconnected the call shaking his head for the benefit of his friends.

"Where is she?" Tatsuki echoed the thought that was in everyone's minds.

"I am willing to bet anything it's that Ulquiorra guy." Ichigo said with a scowl.

"Ichigo, you are jumping to conclusions." Rukia said.

"Am I? Then can you tell me why is he not here? What stopped them both from coming to school? Inoue never misses a class without telling at least one of us."

"You do have a point, but..." Uryuu was still reluctant.

"You haven't noticed Uryuu, but I have. I have seen the way he looks at her, as if she's his property or something. Also, have you seen her around him?"

"I have," Chizuru muttered darkly, "She's different around him. Meaner. I still haven't forgotten that he called her Hime."

"He did that?" Renji said, sounding surprised. He clearly remembered her getting very upset when Chizuru had called her Hime. "How did she react to it?"

"Positively beamed with joy."

Renji was puzzled.

"Do any of you guys know anything much about him?" Shinji asked.

"Just that he comes from Hueco Mundo, and claims that he has no family." Tatsuki ventured.

"Have any of you ever asked him or Orihime, how they know each other?"

They all looked at each other. Nobody had an answer to Shinji's question.

"Why don't the two of you go and visit her today?" Uryuu suggested, looking at Tatsuki and Rukia.

"We have never been to her home." Rukia admitted.

"Coming to think of it, have any of you actually ever been to her home? As in gone inside, not just dropping her off at those massive gates." Ichigo asked.

Everyone shook their heads. Shinji frowned. He'd have liked to say that he had seen Ulquiorra step inside the house, but that would have meant admitting that he sometimes stalked Orihime. It was his secret and he would not let anyone in. He was almost caught that day, when Ulquiorra had suddenly turned. He had thankfully hidden himself only seconds ago, but he had seen his eyes narrow and search the area. The guy had sharp instincts, he had to admit.

Orhime sat pushing her food around the plate. She wasn't hungry at all and had told Ulquiorra as much. But he wouldn't hear a word of it. She was chewing a morsel of food unwillingly when her phone rang, perhaps for the twentieth time. She continued to ignore it. She was in no mood to talk to anyone except Ulquiorra. He looked at the phone with a frown, a muscle working in his jaw.

"What are you so angry about?"

"I am not angry."

She smirked "You know, you are not nearly as expressionless as you would like to believe."

He merely looked at her, but she knew he was interested.

"I mean your face is inscrutable. But your eyes, they speak volumes. Most people don't look you in the eye because you intimidate them, and thus have no idea what you are thinking. Also your body language. There are hints of what you are thinking all over you, if only a person knew where to look."

"Perceptive."

"Coming from you, that's huge compliment." She was grinning.

After a while, she spoke again, "You didn't ask me why I tried to jump yesterday."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

He shrugged and that explained his silence. The phone rang again, bringing his irritation back.

"Why are you getting annoyed about the phone?"

He decided to be honest "They should have realised by now that you aren't going to school today, then why are they calling you so many times?"

"They are my friends, they worry about me."

Something inside him snapped, "Friends? Don't make me laugh. What kind of friends are they? They have no idea about you, who you really are. To them you are an innocent little girl who knows nothing about the world, and they are happy in their cocoon. If they are your friends, why do they think your family is abroad? If they are your friends, why do they not know about your mother? Why do they believe the lie you have fed them about who you are? Why do they not know about the doodles? Or this?" he said raising her hand and pointing her wrist at her. "Friends are meant to be a support system, but I am sorry to say, your support system has failed you."

She sat looking at him, stunned. This was the most she had heard him speak. This was also the only time when she had seen him angry enough to lose control of himself. Her silence made him slip back to his usually cold and aloof personality.

"Sorry, I overstepped. It's not my place to..."

"Because I cannot take it." she said the words slowly, not meeting his eyes. "I don't want to see sympathy in their eyes. They are the only people around whom I can live the life I have always wanted to live, but never could. They help me live my fantasy, Ulquiorra. I cannot tell them my truth, I just cannot."

She said all of this without a shred of self-pity or remorse. She said it as though she had just stated a few facts. That tone had somehow made everything even harsher. He had no response to it, he simply looked away.


	10. The Sleepover 1

A lot of things need to be said before I can start off this chapter so here I go.

1. I have been unwell all these days and hence the delay in update. Damn the aches and pains.

2. For now, the story will move on to lighter things. Plot lines of the other characters and the budding romance of the two main characters. For that reason, the author has conveniently moved Aizen away for a while.

3. Grimmjow finally makes an appearance. Mainly because he is my second favorite Espada. Also because he is going to bring some unintentional LOLs and become the catalyst for a very interesting chain reaction.

4. Also making an appearance are Rangiku, Momo, Nel, Barragan and Arroniero. Zommari and Yammy are also mentioned.

5. This is going to be a long chapter, hence will be divided into two parts. This is part 1. I haven't written part 2 yet. Part 2 will be written and uploaded depending on my health.

I think I have said everything I wanted to say, so now without further ado, I let the chapter begin.

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><p><strong>Chapter 9- The Sleepover 1<strong>

That evening, Ulquiorra stepped out of the bathroom, much more in control of his temper, to find to his utter bewilderment, not one but two of the Espadas sitting on the couch bed, with Orihime sitting on the bed staring at them in what he recognized to be a very defensive posture. Not that either of the Espada were currently doing anything remotely threatening. One of them was flipping through a magazine while the other was snoring, with his mouth open. While he understood the presence of Szayel, he was mystified as to why had the other, currently snoring Espada shown up. Sensing Ulquiorra's presence, Szayel stood up. Casting a look of pure disdain at the sleeping figure, Szayel walked up to Ulquiorra.

"She wouldn't let me check her till you were present." He said, not bothering to keep his voice down.

Looking at the woman on the bed he said, "It's OK, he's a doctor."

She blinked in surprise, "I thought he was one of the Espada?"

"Yes I am, but I am also a doctor." Szayel said with the patience of someone who had probably answered this question about hundred times before.

Szayel quickly checked her blood pressure, temperature, pulse rate and asked her a few questions regarding her symptoms and declared her fit. A bit tired, but fit.

"So Ms Inoue, eat a lot. You need to get your energy back. Although eat only when your body tells you to. You should be up and about by tomorrow afternoon." Szayel said in a sing song voice.

"Thanks." She whispered.

"Why are you whispering, your throat hurts?"

"No. Him..." she said pointing at the sleeping Espada. From her limited experience with the Espada, she knew that they were alert even in their sleep.

"Oh him!" Szayel let out a snort and even Ulquiorra's face had a small hint of amusement. "He won't wake up till something explodes right next to his ears. Don't mind him. Watch this." he added when she didn't look convinced.

He picked up a heavy book from the table and dropped it loudly on the table. The man on the couch snored on.

"But you were right in your caution with the Espada." Szayel said as he packed his stuff, "Anybody else would have woken up long ago. He is one of his kind."

After Szayel left, Ulquiorra looked at her and asked "When did this one come in?"

"Some time ago, before Szayel. He said he had to talk to you. But promptly went to sleep, as soon as he sat down."

He sighed and walked over to the couch-bed. Despite herself, Orihime was interested. Just how does one wake an Espada up? However, on seeing Ulquiorra's method, she was sure that was definitely _not _the way. He upturned a jug full of water on the blue head.

"Where's the flood?" Grimmjow woke up screaming.

Ulquiorra stood impassively, with the jug still in his hand.

"You bastard."

"Language Sexta. You are in company of a female and a minor at that."

Orihime bristled at the description.

"She goes to School Schiffer; I can bet she's heard much worse." He said, wiping the water off his face in a way that for some reason reminded Orihime of a cat.

"What brings you here?"

"Oh! I almost forgot. Aizen, Tosen, Starrk and Hallibel are going out. For about eight days, some political campaign. He told me to give the two of you some messages."

"We are listening."

"To you, Emo-king, he asked me to say 'Stick to your duties, the well-being of my ward and child lies in your hands.' And to you, chick, he says 'Stay well. I will continue our discussion once I am back.'"

"Hmmm, but there is something I don't understand." Ulquiorra said putting the jug back.

"What's that?"

"Why would he send you to deliver these messages? Surely a servant can say these words, without falling asleep on duty."

Orihime had a tough time trying not to snicker.

"Oi, I have been up for three consecutive nights, cut me some slack."

"Answer the real question."

"Well," Grimmjow said, not meeting Ulquiorra's eyes, "I sort of..eh..volunteered."

Ulquiorra sighed, "You are hiding from Zommari."

"Hey, don't say it like that!"

He only got a raised eyebrow in response.

"Yeah fine, I am hiding from that lunatic. He wants me to meditate. He says I have issues and that meditation will help."

"I agree with him on one thing at least." Ulquiorra said.

"And on top of it he says...wait, what did you say?"

"Never mind. How long do you plan to hide?"

Before Grimmjow could answer, Orihime's cell phone beeped signalling a text message. The two men looked at her as she read it, showed it to Ulquiorra, who nodded and turned back to Grimmjow.

"A couple of days maybe. Zommari is here for couple of days. If it's alright with you." He said looking at Orihime.

"I...I don't mind, but where will you sleep?"

"Oh, I'll bunk in my quarters for the night. It's for the days that I need a place to hide."

"Sure." She said smiling.

Till date, Orihime had seen Grimmjow from a distance and had always found him to be very intimidating, however now, watching him talk with Ulquiorra, she felt none of the intimidation. In fact he reminded her of Ichigo and Renji.

Once Grimmjow left for the day, Ulquiorra couldn't help but notice that Orihime was chirpier. She was talking a lot more and in a more animated way than usual. He sat on his couch bed, listening to her, with a tiny hint of a smile amidst in his eyes, vaguely aware she was talking about something funny that happened with Uryuu Ishida. What he was really seeing was how she sat on her bed, how her eyes sparkled, how she would occasionally run out of breath causing her cheeks to redden slightly and making her pause in mid-sentence and take a deep breath before continuing. He was completely mesmerised by her, as she laughed at her own story, wiping her tears of mirth. He was suddenly overcome by the impulse to hug her, listen to her laughter, and watch her fall asleep in his arms. He wanted to run his hands through her hair, smell her. To him she always smelled like the first rain. A smell he had loved since his childhood.

"Ulquiorra!" her voice jolted him to his senses. He looked at her, slightly startled.

"So, should we go?" She asked.

"Huh?"

"To Rukia's place! Remember? This is the only time probably that I can go to something like this. If my step-father is home, I can never go. Please, can we go?"

He did remember. Rukia Kuchiki had sent a message inviting them all to her brother's farm house for a sleepover. Being an introvert, parties and sleepovers were not really his cup of tea, but she really wanted it, and before he knew it, he found himself agreeing to it.

* * *

><p>Next evening, Grimmjow drove the van which was taking them to the Kuchiki farmhouse outside of Karakura town. Orihime had insisted that Haruki would have to come with her, which meant Barragan would accompany them. Gin, who was in charge of Las Noches wouldn't allow the child to step out of the house without at least two Espadas accompanying her; hence Arroniero was an unwilling participant. Grimmjow would not stay under the same roof as Zommari with only Yammy, Szayel (who would be away at the hospital for the best part of the day) and Nnoitra to keep him safe, so he jumped in when Gin said that Orihime too needed two Espadas with her. Ulquiorra was going by default.<p>

"Alright gentlemen, let's get this absolutely clear." Orihime said in a low voice to not wake up the sleeping Haruki, "My friends are obviously going to ask who you three are. So this is what I am saying, you both" she said pointing at Barragan and Arroniero sitting at the back seat "are Haruki's bodyguards."

"Babysitters, more like it." Arroniero muttered.

Orihime continued as though she didn't hear, leaning to talk to the two men in front seat, "Grimmjow, you are Ulquiorra's distant cousin."

"WHAT? Have you lost your mind? There is no way in hell I am related to this emo freak."

"Would you rather I said you are his boyfriend?"

"Wha...This is not right. Hey, Ulquiorra, say something. This chick is mad."

"You are the tag along, she's the one explaining, and why should I bother?" Ulquiorra said without looking at him.

"Choose fast Grimmjow, I don't have an eternity."

"Alright, fine. Cousins it is. This is blackmail I tell you, blackmail."

Barragan leaned forward and asked "Ms Inoue, are you absolutely certain there will be no threat to Ms Souske there?"

"Absolutely! Byakuya Kuchiki is a very cautious man. I told him that I am getting my cousin sister, and he knows that my uncle's getting into politics and that his family needs protection, so he's arranged for his own security."

"Byakuya Kuchiki?" Grimmjow said, frowning, "That guy works for the police, right?"

"Yes." Arroniero replied.

"We should be careful around him. He's a sharp one." Ulquiorra added.

"But he hardly talks." Orihime said.

"Those are the ones you should really watch out for chick." Grimmjow said seriously, "They are usually the most dangerous ones. They see more, much more than they let on. Usually those are the ones that see things that a chatty one will probably miss."

Orihime fell silent. She was thinking of another man who fit Grimmjow's description of Byakuya. She knew he had figured out a lot about herself, but exactly how much had he worked out? Did he really know more than he let on? She decided she would have to find out. Making up her mind, she turned around to see those green eyes focused on her with a strange intensity. He did not look away when she caught him staring. Green eyes bored into grey ones till she was forced to look away. She was conscious of him staring at her for a little longer before looking away.

The van stopped in front of the farm house where Ichigo was unloading some things from a truck with Sado, Renji and Ishida.

"Whoa Inoue, that's some crowd." Ichigo said, staring at the people who stepped out of the van.

"Haha, I-I- know right. Th-this here is Barragan and this is Arroniero, they-they are my cousin sister's bodyguards. M-my uncle's not in town you see and-and I couldn't leave her alone, could I?"

"Yeah, I get it. Hello." He said nodding to the two, who nodded back.

"Ok, them I get. The kid, I get. Who's this weird blue haired guy?" Renji asked.

"Says the red haired, weird eyebrows guy?" Grimmjow shot back.

Ichigo grinned, "I like him already, I am Ichigo Kurosaki."

"Grimmjow Jargerjaquez. Ulquiorra's cousin."

"You both are related? You sure don't look like it." Ishida said.

"Distant relation." Ulquiorra offered.

"Hello Sado," Orihime cut in with a high pitched voice causing Haruki to move uncomfortably in her sleep in an effort to make more room in Orihime's lap.

"Hello Inoue." Sado replied in a deep voice and continued with his work.

"Let's get inside shall we?"

"Yeah, there are a few more introductions due anyway." Ichigo replied.

"Rangiku!" Orihime yelled as she saw the other woman sitting on the sofa.

"Orihime!" she replied with genuine pleasure.

Handing Haruki to Barragan, she ran to meet Rangiku. While the two of them hugged, four more girls walked in.

"Momo! So good to see you again." Orihime smiled. "Hello again Tatsuki, Chizuru."

"Good to see you too Orihime." Momo replied.

"How are you feeling now, Orihime?" Tatsuki asked.

"Oh much better."

Since Tatsuki was standing right next to her, Chizuru didn't venture to hug Orihime and just said a hello.

"Oh Orihime, meet my new roommate, Nel." Rangiku said pointing at the lovely girl standing behind her.

"Hello Nel, I am Orihime Inoue."

Nel however didn't reply. Her eyes were fixed on something behind Orihime, her face devoid of all colours.


	11. The Sleepover 2

Here comes part 2, it turned out longer than I expected it to. More of Nel's mysterious behavior from the last chapter is explained. Byakuya Kuchiki makes an appearance. (He is the only guy who makes hair clips and cherry blossom petals look masculine. How does he do that?)

Grimmjow gets a more prominent role in this chapter, simply because currently his is the plot line I am about to address. The focus will move soon, and other characters will come to prominence gradually. But as is the case with this chapter, the main two will continue to be in the scene. This is an Ulquihime after all.

Finally, thank you all for your well wishes. My health is much better, thanks to your wishes.

**PS: **I have finally rewritten the chapter A Dream and Interaction (chapter 6 by my count and 7 by FFNET's count since it counted prologue as chapter 1). Please do read it. Thanks in advance.

OK I have rambled enough. Here is the chapter.

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><p><strong>Chapter 10- The Sleepover 2<strong>

"_Orihime, you have become old enough to bear a child now. I was thinking..." He said as he put on his pants._

"_Don't tax that non-existent brain of yours. I would gouge out my own womb before I allow any spawn of you to take seed in me." She said vehemently, putting on her own clothes. _

"_There, there. No need for such drastic measures is there?" he said as he touched her breast._

_She slapped his hand away and said "You have done all that you wanted to do. Keep your hands off me."_

_Aizen chuckled, "What's the point of all this modesty, my beautiful one? What do you have to hide from me?"_

"_I would have explained it to you, if I thought there was a point." Orihime finished buttoning up her shirt, "Now if you will excuse me. Haruki needs attending to."_

_She walked out before Aizen could say anything more._

* * *

><p>Orihime shuddered involuntarily. This was no time to think of that abhorrent man or of his silky voice that always made her feel like snakes ran over her body. She clicked in annoyance and tucked the blanket around a sleeping Haruki. The child hadn't woken up since the time she fell asleep in the car. She brushed a lock of chocolate coloured hair from her sister's eyes and vowed to herself that she would never let the shadows of her nightmare fall on her. She sighed and dipped her hand into her jacket pocket, taking out a strip of pills. It had been extremely difficult to keep this hidden from Ulquiorra's ever vigilant eyes. She had at first hidden it in her bathroom, but when she realized that they'd be sharing the bathroom, she had removed them from there. Since then they had been hidden under her mattress and she would have them when he was in the shower. She knew he had done a thorough research on her and that he knew she was perfectly healthy. So if he ever saw her having pills, he would obviously question her. And she wasn't sure she could tell him why she was having an oral contraceptive. She popped a pill in her mouth quickly and followed it with a glass of water. Shoving the strip into her overnight bag, she stepped out of the room, to find the seating area empty save Rangiku and Ulquiorra.<p>

Ulquiorra was staring at something only he could see and Rangiku was openly admiring him from a distance. If it were any other woman, Orihime would probably have felt a stab of annoyance, but knowing Rangiku, she knew that her admiration was merely objective. She smiled and started walking down the stairs to the seating area. Sensing her, Ulquiorra looked up and said "Everyone is by the pool and waiting for you."

Orihime turned around to nod at Barragan and Arroniero, before joining the two standing below her.

Rangiku strung her arm across Orihime's and asked her in a whisper "So I hear this hotness is your friend."

She laughed as she gently pried her arm from her and replied in a whisper, "Yes he's my friend, but before you can ask any further questions, there is nothing brewing."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes absolutely."

"So you won't mind if I try my chances with him, would you?"

Orihime laughed but didn't reply. A voice in her mind however said _Don't even think about it._

"Who's brilliantly rotten idea was it to host a pool side party in a winter night?" Renji was complaining loudly.

"What stopped you from dressing adequately?" Uryuu asked.

Renji had opened his mouth to protest when Orihime, Rangiku and Ulquiorra walked in.

"Cool," Tatsuki said, "Now that the three are here, can we start?"

"Start what?" Rangiku asked.

"Truth or dare." Rukia said excitedly.

"Not a good idea." Ichigo mumbled.

"Oh come on Ichigo, don't be a wuss." Tatsuki sneered.

After some mumbled protests, the thirteen of them sat down in a rough circle. Orihime was seated between Tatsuki and Ishida. Rukia held the bottle.

"Ready everyone?"

"Yes" most people replied in varying degrees of enthusiasm, only Sado and Ulquiorra stayed silent. Not that anybody expected either of them to be otherwise. Rukia spun the bottle which turned around a few times before pointing at Momo.

"Momo! Tell us Truth or Dare?"

"Truth" she replied with a smile.

"Are you or are you not dating Toushiro?" Nel asked with an impish smile.

Momo turned a shade of pink before replying "Not yet. He...He is yet to say something."

All the girls "aww"ed simultaneously and all the guys tried their level best to hide their discomfort.

Momo turned the bottle next, which then pointed at Sado.

"Truth or dare?"

"Dare." Sado replied.

Ichigo and Renji were ready with one. They asked Sado to jump into the pool shirtless. Tatsuki, Rukia and Rangiku started protesting wildly, the other girls joining in shortly. But Sado had already taken his shirt off and was prepared to jump. For some reason Orihime looked at Ulquiorra the moment Sado jumped. He shook his head almost imperceptibly. He caught her looking at him and she smiled. She saw a small twitch in the corners of his mouth. She knew by now that meant he was smiling. Sado got up from the pool, completely drenched. Before anyone could say anything a new voice interrupted.

"Trust a bunch of teenagers to do something so stupid."

Orihime turned around to see a beautiful man standing in the doorway, although it was clear he was currently very displeased.

"Nii-sama!" Rukia muttered.

He looked at Rukia and said, "You have the permission to continue this game only if you promise not to let something like this to happen again. And you boy, come inside and get dried before you catch a cold."

Without waiting for a response from either, Byakuya Kuchiki walked inside. Sado followed wordlessly, shivering. Rukia proceeded to scold the two who were trying hard not to laugh. Tatsuki managed to pull an annoyed Rukia back and calm her down before the bottle was spun again which ended up pointing at Nel.

"Dare."

"Nel, do something unthinkable." Uryuu put forth the dare.

"Fair enough." she said and stood up. Then much to everyone's surprise she walked up to Grimmjow and slapped him hard across his face. Ulquiorra was about to get up almost instantly but Grimmjow stopped him.

"Relax." he said "No big deal."

"Err..Nel," Uryuu looked embarrassed as though he had been the one who'd slapped Grimmjow, "wasn't that a little too hard?"

"No." She replied in a tone that didn't welcome any more questions. Orihime however noticed Grimmjow stare at her, with a strange expression, almost like…like _longing._

She was lost in her thoughts and didn't realise that the bottle had now pointed at her, till Tatsuki nudged her in the ribs.

"Ow! What? Oh! hehe, Truth."

"So Orihime," Tatsuki said, her eyes gleaming, "Is there a confession you would like to make?" She leaned in closer and whispered, "Now is the time, tell him."

Without even pausing to think Orihime said with a smile "Ulquiorra. I don't think I can summarize in words just how much you have given me. You know I hated you at first, but then you were there, when I needed someone the most. You were there to hold my hand through the darkness. Now you are one of my most treasured friends. Thank you for being my friend in need."

He smiled ever so slightly, bowed his head and replied "My pleasure entirely."

"Why didn't you tell Ichigo how you feel?" Tatsuki hissed.

Orihime was puzzled, _why indeed? I do love him, don't I?_ She asked herself. Another part of her however asked her, _Really? Do you?_

After about four more rounds, a man came by to announce that dinner was ready. Everyone scrambled inside to find Sado sitting on the sofa, wrapped in multiple blankets, drinking a bowl of hot soup, and looking thoroughly pampered. Seeing them he showed them a thumbs-up sign with his usual deadpan expression.

"That dog!" Ichigo muttered.

Dinner was an elaborate affair. The Kuchikis had pulled all stops laying out many varieties of dishes. Orihime looked at everything that was on display and said,

"Rukia, can I have some red bean paste? You know I..."

"I know, I know" the shorter girl said, "I have it ready for you, here."

She squealed with delight as Rukia gave her the red bean paste. She extended her hand to grab bread at the same time as Chizuru did and the red head's eyes caught something.

"Orihime! What happened to your hand?" she was staring at Orihime's wrist which was now partly visible under her jacket's sleeve that had pulled back.

Orihime blanched.

"My cat." Ulquiorra spoke smoothly. "It's a really wild thing and attacks just about anyone. She was the latest victim."

At some distance, Grimmjow raised an eyebrow but mercifully stayed quiet.

"You have a cat?" Chizuru looked surprised.

"Is it forbidden?"

"No. I just didn't make you as a pets person."

He shrugged. After Chizuru moved away, Orihime moved in close to him, so that no one would hear them and said,

"Thank you."

He looked at her, their faces merely inches away from each other. He expected her to pull back at this sudden proximity but she didn't. He whispered back, "Be careful."

Neither of them noticed Ichigo staring daggers at them.

"What are you getting so worked up about?" Rukia asked Ichigo when she realised he was seething.

"Ulquiorra. He's getting a little too close to Inoue."

"You heard what she said, she considers him to be a very precious friend."

"She does. But he wants something else from her."

"Ichigo! You..."

"Rukia. I am a guy right? I can tell what guys think. And that guy, he is..."

"What exactly?" a new voice came from behind them.

They both turned together to find themselves staring at Grimmjow.

"I find the conversation very interesting, I want in." he said with a wide grin that didn't reach his eyes.

"Your cousin." Ichigo said, "Just what is he playing at?"

"Care to elaborate?"

"He's being a little too friendly with Orihime."

"Is she your girlfriend?"

"No."

"Do you have a thing for her?"

"No."

"Was she your girlfriend at any point in time?"

"No."

"Then what the fuck is your problem? If they are planning on playing the courtship game with each other, isn't it entirely their business? Why do you have ants in your pants?"

"Look here, I understand you taking your cousin's side, but you don't know Inoue the way we do. She..."

"Maybe not." Grimmjow cut in, "But you don't know Schiffer the way I do either. If it's your friend's safety you are concerned about then I can assure you, she couldn't have been in safer hands."

Later in the night, a brief lull had set in the group, with people spreading out here and there, roaming in the garden. Orihime took the chance to check on Haruki, who was still sleeping soundly. On her way to the garden, she was still smiling slightly, her skin tingling pleasantly with the memory of those mesmerising green eyes staring at her merely inches away from her face. She was trying to subdue the sudden attack of goose flesh that was triggered with the memory when she heard a heated voice that she now knew to belong go Grimmjow. Curious as to what might have angered the Espada, she walked over.

"...again. As many times as you want to. Punch me, kick me but for fuck's sake, talk to me." he was saying.

"Let me go. I have nothing to say to you." a cold female voice replied.

Orihime was puzzled. Who was he talking to?

"Look I am sorry."

"Sorry?" she replied in a raspy voice, "Sorry doesn't cut it pal. Keep your sorry to yourself. I don't need your apologies."

"Damnit Nel!"

_Nel?_ Orihime wondered, _why would he be apologizing to her? After all she was the one who hit him, then why was he the one saying sorry?_

She realised that she was eavesdropping and it wasn't a very good idea, so she decided to walk away. She had barely taken a step when she heard the unmistakable sound of two people struggling against each other, mutely. Her curiosity won over and she slightly parted the bush she was hiding behind. To her utter surprise, she found Grimmjow pinning Nel against a wall with his body and placing a rough kiss on her. The girl continued a futile struggle as he had pinned both her hands against the wall. Nel however wasn't one to give in so easily. She managed to free her leg and slammed her heel hard on his foot.

He pulled back swearing. She slapped him across the face once again and said,

"Don't touch me ever again, Jagerjaquez. Next time I won't be so kind." She was storming out, when he held her hand.

"Don't go."

"Leave me."

"Please."

"Let. Me. Go."

"Fine. Go. See if I don't make you regret it."

"Good luck." she said and stormed out.

Orihime quickly hid herself, but Nel never even looked in her direction as she walked away. She was followed shortly by Grimmjow, who didn't seem to be seeing anything, lost in his own thoughts. He was completely unaware that the plan he had come up with in order to make Nel regret leaving him, was about to set off a chain reaction.


	12. The Chain Reaction

I don't have much to say for this chapter except that I thank you all for your love and support for this story. You all are great!

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><p><strong>Chapter 11- The Chain Reaction<strong>

Grimmjow walked in the garden with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, his brows furrowed. His blue eyes scanned the garden, resting on Nel's rigid form. He pursed his lip.

"Damn Nel!" He whispered.

He didn't notice Orihime following him at a distance. But someone else had. Ulquiorra walked up to her and raised an eyebrow in question.

"Something is about to happen." Orihime whispered.

He barely had time to react to her cryptic, prophetic message when Grimmjow's unexpected action caught his eyes, surprising him.

The tall blue haired man had taken a seat next to Rukia Kuchiki, who appeared equally stunned.

"So, can I ask a personal question?" he asked in a low voice.

"Depends.." she replied.

"Are you seeing anyone currently?"

Orihime and Rukia's jaws dropped collectively. Ulquiorra's eyes widened.

"I err..no. But..err...can I ask why?"

"Well, I was wondering if I could try my chances." He replied flatly.

"What is he playing at?" Ulquiorra whispered, confused.

Orihime stole a glance at Nel and saw her eyes narrow and her lips form a thin line. Something begun to click in her mind. Something that she would be able to give voice to soon. However, she was more interested in the bizarre scene unfolding in front of her eyes.

"Ummm..I..I..I really don't know what to say." Rukia said, flustered, her cheeks a shade of pink.

"All you need to say is, would you mind if I did try?"

"Bu-but we've just met." Rukia said weakly.

"Can't I find you interesting in just one meeting?" he asked, his voice low.

"You can," Rukia said, her expression still uncertain, "but..." she frowned, unsure of what to say.

"I see you have run out of feeble excuses to push me away."

From the corner of her eyes, she saw Nel lean forward as if listening in.

"No, no. I wasn't trying to push you away or anything. It's just that..." She suddenly seemed to realize that a lot of eyes were on them. Embarrassed, she looked at the ground.

Grimmjow stood up with his hands in his pockets "It's fine. I can read between the lines and take a hint. Don't worry, I won't bother you further."

He cast a sideways look at Nel and walked away. Nel didn't return the look, her lips set in a tight line.

Orihime saw the look in Ulquiorra's eyes, and realised he was very confused. She was about at explain it to him when she saw Ichigo take the seat Grimmjow had just emptied. Her mouth clamped shut, a small frown on her face.

"What did he want?" Ichigo asked bluntly.

"You heard him." Rukia said, her tone back to her boisterous self.

"So, you like him?" he sounded unsure.

"I just met him, Ichigo."

"But he is kind of good looking and smart. Witty too. Isn't he?"

"Yes." Rukia said, her eyes narrowed.

"So, you wouldn't mind if he..you know.."

"Ichigo! You are nuts!" She sounded irritated.

"What?" his voice raising by half an octave, "I saw you. You were blushing."

"Beacuse I was embarrassed, you idiot!"

"Why would you be embarrassed?"

"Oh I don't know! How does being hit on by a random stranger sound?" Rukia's patience had reached it's limit.

"But.. Why? What?"

"Ichigo, you need to get your thought process straight. Speak what's actually on your mind for once. Beating about the bush would never earn you anything."

"You want me to be straight?" he yelled, unmindful of the fact that everyone in the garden was staring at them, "I cannot bear to see you with another guy."

"And why would that be?" in contrast, Rukia's voice had dropped to a whisper.

"I love you, damnit!" he screamed.

"You are such an idiot." Rukia whispered, but she wasn't angry. She was smiling. To no one, except Ichigo's surprise, she hugged him. "Takes you so long to say?"

Ichigo stood there completely stunned and unsure what to do.

"You are supposed to hug her back, dumbass!" Renji yelled, laughing.

"Let's go people. Let's give the two some privacy." Ishida said, smiling.

Everyone cleared, one by one, congratulating the two. Ulquiorra however was staring at Orihime. Her face seemed strangely devoid of all the amusement and laughter that had been dominant on her face had gone away, replaced by a faint scowl. She had smiled brightly and congratulated the two, but it didn't take him long to realise that her smile was fake. Puzzled he followed her after murmuring his congrats to the two.

"Are you alright?" Tatsuki was looking at Orihime, worried.

"Yes." she said absently, "I am fine."

"How can you be? Orihime, Ichigo just...I told you...Why didn't you tell him you love him? You must be..."

"Tatsuki, really. I am fine." She whispered. She walked away from her friend, leaving the dark haired girl gaping.

A couple of steps behind them, Ulquiorra stood absolutely stunned, a strange burning settling somewhere within his chest.

In some distance, Grimmjow stood, amused at what how things had turned. He had tried to make Nel jealous. He admitted that Rukia was pretty in her own way, but she wasn't his type. He had gone for her, simply because she was sitting straight in Nel's line of sight. He didn't know if he succeeded in doing what he had started but he had definitely achieved an outcome he wasn't expecting. He had inadvertently united two lovers. He was smiling slightly to himself when someone tapped him on his shoulder.

"That went splendidly." Nel said with a wry smile.

He grinned at her and said "At least it got you talking to me."

Nel laughed mirthlessly and said "How can I ever let go of a moment when I can point out how pathetic you are?"

His smile faltered and he said, "When are you going to let it go, Nel?"

"Never. And it's Neliel for you." She walked away, leaving Grimmjow in a really bad mood.

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><p>Orihime sat at her desk, her mind in a complete turmoil. She had been staring at the same page for the past two hours without taking in a word. Thankfully Ulquiorra seemed distracted too, since he either hadn't spotted or didn't deem it worthy to check how much of her school's work she had completed. Thankfully it was a Saturday, so she had the whole day to think over the latest developments. Last night something had happened, something that had shaken her to the core. When Ichigo had screamed his confession, Orihime had expected to have a jealous reaction. But she had felt nothing. She had only been genuinely happy for the two, and that had surprised her. She was so confused by her reaction, or lack thereof, that she had given a false smile to them and congratulated them. When Tatsuki had asked her how she was, she had truthfully replied that she was fine. When her friend had asked her why she hadn't told Ichigo that she loved him, Orihime had wanted to reply, that she didn't love him. She never did. She was just infatuated with him at some point in time, somewhere down the lane she had outgrown it too but hadn't been aware of it, at least not consciously. Maybe she knew it at a subconscious level and that's why had never spoken to him about how she felt. However, yesterday, seeing Rukia hug Ichigo, she had realised something else. Her mind had drawn a picture for her that she couldn't wipe out from her memory, try as she might. She wanted to be where Rukia was- hugging the man she loved. Only, the face of the man had been had been Ulquiorra's face. Every time she thought back to that, she felt a tingle run down her spine. Somewhere along the line she had fallen in love with this shadow of hers. Yes, he was sweet, adorable, calm, silent and a person the like of whom she had never met before.<p>

But he was Ulquiorra, an Espada. A loyal employee of the man she hated the most. And he was supposed to be her spy. Orihime was beginning to have suspicions if Haruki had really received a threat or not. It had started yesterday, when Gin had allowed the child to go with her for a sleepover. She had begun to suspect the real reason Aizen had put Ulquiorra on her spy duty, was to get rid of her. And the thought scared her. If she was removed from the picture, whether killed or moved away, it would mean that there would be nothing between Aizen and her worst fears coming true. He would descend on Haruki, and the man she had fallen in love with, would be the one who would give Aizen the cue or the clue on basis of which she would be eliminated.

_You are over thinking Orihime._ She told herself. _You are trying to find excuses to ignore the fact that you are in love._

She stole a quick glance at the man who sat with a book in front of his nose. She sighed inwardly, wondering what to do. She decided to ask Gin about the details of the threat Haruki had received. Granted Gin wasn't the most trustworthy man, but he hadn't so far lied to her. In fact he had been nice to her the few times they had spoken. Her mind made up, she did her best to ignore the impulse that wanted her to walk up to the silent man, snatch his book and claim her place in his arms.

The woman loved Ichigo Kurosaki. That one thought kept returning to his mind, torturing him. He cursed himself for not seeing it before. The woman practically turned into a simpering mess when he was around. She was a frail thing around him, not the strong and willful woman he had come to know and love. He was angry at himself for allowing himself that weakness. How could he have fallen in love with a woman he was supposed to spy on? He was supposed to remain objective, and note if she showed any signs of betraying the Souske family. That was what his duty was. If he had forced himself to be objective, he would have probably been able to do what was expected of him. But now, his job and loyalty were in direct conflict with his morals and his heart. If he stayed true to his employer, the one who had given him food, clothing, shelter and work, he would have to go against his ethics that taught him to raise his voice against unprovoked violence and abuse. If she stayed true to the woman he loved, then he was in direct confrontation with the man he had sworn his loyalty to. The man whom he was oath bound to protect. And to top it all, the woman who was responsible for the mess he was in, was in love with someone else. Although he had to admit that it wasn't really Orihime's fault that he was in such a problem. She hadn't asked him to fall in love with her, she had always maintained that he was her friend. He had dug that grave himself. So blaming her was being an escapist and escapist he was not. Hidden behind his book, he closed his eyes. So much for the self control the Fourth Espada was famous for.


	13. Attacked!

Back to some serious action. And some Ulquihime fluff. What more could one want from a chapter huh?

Oh and this story has 50 reviews now. So thank you all for your support. :)

I have received several queries about what's happening between Nel and Grimmjow. Well it will be revealed soon. Till then enjoy the story. Also reviews please.

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><p><strong>Chapter 12- Attacked!<strong>

At around eleven in the morning, Orihime slammed her books shut. She had been sitting in front of them for more than two hours but her mind had been going around in circles, conjuring images of herself and Ulquiorra. She was glad that his all seeing green eyes were unable to see them for it would be very embarrassing for her.

"I am going out." She declared.

Ulquiorra finally looked up from the book he had been holding and nodded. He stood up and started following her, strangely enough falling two steps behind her. She turned to speak to him, but found him looking elsewhere, preoccupied. She let him be, partly because she wasn't sure what to tell him and partly because he seemed to have withdrawn into his own shell. She walked up to Aizen's office, where Gin was seated currently. The door to the office was partially open. She knocked the door and peeped in. The silver haired man looked up at her with his perpetual fox-like smile and beckoned her inside. He was talking to someone on the phone, hence pointed at a chair in front of him, nodding at his two visitors. Orihime patiently waited for him to finish his call.

"Tell me, Miss Inoue, how can I be of any service?"

"Gin, can I trust you?"

His already wide smile widened still as he replied "Have I given any reason for you to not do so madam?"

_Other than looking creepy as hell, no._ Orihime thought. She shook her head with a smile in response.

"I assume you want to talk to me about something urgent?"

She cast a glance at Ulquiorra, who continued to sit next to her so still, he might have been a piece of furniture for all she knew. She sighed and looked back at Gin.

"What about the threat Haruki had received?"

Gin's smile faltered only marginally, but his expression didn't change one bit. His eyes, closed as ever, because of his wide smile.

"Would you be a bit more specific please?"

"Well, I want to know if you all have any leads as to who threatened her. Also if there has been any

action taken against them. What's the progress?"

From the corner of her eyes, she saw Ulquiorra frown slightly, but he continued to stay impassive. The man on the other side of the table widened his smile and said,

"To be perfectly honest Miss Inoue, we don't know who the culprit is."

"And yet, Mr. Aizen Souske leaves his own daughter here and goes off to his political campaign?" She said raising an eyebrow.

"Life doesn't stop because of a threat."

"No it doesn't. I agree. But to leave his only family at the mercy of the Espada," she quickly turned to Ulquiorra and said, "no offence, but I cannot condone his decision."

"I understand your concern Miss Inoue, appreciate it too. However, you are not old enough to understand the way the world works."

"Do not patronize me, Gin Ichimaru." She said, her grey eyes sparkling.

Without skipping a beat Gin asked "Is there anything else I can help you with, Miss Inoue?"

She understood it to be her dismissal. She stood up and replied icily, "No. As it is, I am overwhelmed by the help you have already provided."

Saying so, she walked out without a backward glance. The Fourth Espada followed her quietly. At the door he turned around to look at the man, who continued to smile at them. Once the door was closed behind Ulquiorra's back, Gin's smile dropped. He picked up the phone and dialled a number.

Orihime walked towards Haruki's room, seething. Ulquiorra followed. Half way through she turned to him and said,

"I know you are angry that I asked about the threat."

"Not my place to be angry."

She resisted the urge to reply. Just listening to his voice sent shivers through out her body. She didn't want to end up doing or saying something that might embarrass her.

"Olihime!" the little girl shouted as she bounded up to her, "I like the paaty tomorrow."

"Not tomorrow Haruki, yesterday. And how could you like the party? You slept through it."

Haruki giggled and said "No, I woke up. I saw tall onange boy holding small black gil. Why was he holding hel?"

"Because he is her boyfriend."

"Boyflend? What is that?"

"Ummm boyfriends are special kind of friends. You'll understand more when you grow up a bit more."

"Hmmm. Do you have a boyflend, Olihime?"

She laughed and said, "No, I don't."

"Do you have a boyflend, Uquila?" That was the closest approximation of Ulquiorra that Haruki could manage.

Ulquiorra shook his head, calmly.

"Does Ballagan have one?"

The old man sighed and replied, "Only girls have boyfriends, Miss Souske. Boys like Ulquiorra and myself will have girl friends."

Haruki's face scrunched up as she tried to process the information.

"That's not fail. When I glow up, I will have boyflends and gilflends. Many flends."

Orihime smiled and said, "Yes, have many friends. Lots of them. But for now, lets go and have some fun. Want to play soccer?"

"YES!"

The two Espadas stood in two ends of the stretch of porch that had been turned into a makeshift soccer field. Light snow dusted the surroundings, but the Sun shone brilliantly in the winter afternoon. The two sisters laughed merrily as they ran around kicking the ball, working a sweat. Every now and then, the ball would roll over to one of the two Espadas and they would kick it back to the game.

"Well, well. What do we have here?" A sing song voice broke in.

"Oh!" Orihime said panting, "Hello Szayel. How are you?"

"I am fine Miss Inoue, thank you. How are you doing?"

"I am fine too. You are not at the hospital today?"

Szayel laughed and said "No. Even doctors deserve a break. I wanted to enjoy a lazy Saturday afternoon for a change."

"Oh wow. Want to join us in our soccer game?"

"Would love to Miss Inoue, but that would go against my decision of being lazy today, so I will give it a pass. Enjoy your game. I'll go and bask in the Sun."

"Very well Szayel. See you!"

Szayel waved his hand at her and walked away. The two girls resumed their game. They took a break once to enjoy some lemonade, before resuming the game yet again. At one point, Orihime kicked the ball harder than she intended to. Haruki ran after it squealing. Orihime followed. Barragan stopped the ball with his foot and was about to kick it back when something caught his eye and he turned his head. On the other end of the field, Ulquiorra mimicked his action. The two girls barely had the time to reach Barragan when several things happened at the same time. A loud bang echoed across the garden, a gruff voice said "Miss!" and Orihime felt a strong hand push her on the ground. The next thing she realised was that she was on the ground as was Haruki and Barragan was on top of both of them. Something wet was dripping on her hand. She pulled out her hand to realise it was blood- a lot of it. Screaming she pulled herself from beneath Barragan just in time to see Ulquiorra race at top speed after someone.

"Help me!" She screamed. "Someone please help me!"

In front of her, Barragan lay twitching in an ever increasing pool of blood, his hand draped protectively around Haruki.

"Somebody please help! Barragan's been shot!" Orihime screamed.

Three people came running from different direction. Yammy reached first. He dialled a number on his phone and alerted Szayel about the situation. As he was picking up the injured man, Grimmjow and Nnoitra reached the scene. Haruki ran over to Orihime and held her tightly. Orihime herself was in a shock.

"Where is Ulquiorra?" Nnoitra asked.

She pointed at the direction he had run.

"I am going after him." the tall Espada told his comrades and ran. Grimmjow picked Orihime by her arm and guided her away from the scene, following Yammy.

About one and a half hours later, Orihime sat on a chair in Szayel's quarter. Haruki refused to leave her side, sitting on her lap, her tiny hands clutching her dress, her face hidden in her sister's bosom. The child had been shivering for the better part of the last one and half hour, but now, she her shivers had gone down, her breathing much more in control. Grimmjow sat right next to her and Yammy stood some distance away. Aaroniero and Zommari had joined them shortly after getting the news. Gin had come by to ensure that Haruki was fine and had promised to drop by later. He also let them know that Aizen had been informed.

"Any news of Ulquiorra and Nnoitra?" Zommari asked to no one in particular.

"Nnoitra had called. They got hold of the shooter. But he killed himself. They are bringing his body back for identification." Yammy answered.

"That won't be of much help though." Grimmjow volunteered. The other Espadas seemed to agree.

"Why not? If he can we identified, we can find out who he was employed with." Orihime asked.

"The shooter was a hired assassin." Aaroniero explained, "His actions were that of a professional. He was probably contacted by some minion and he didn't even know who he is working for."

"Then Ulquiorra ran after him in vain?" She was feeling a little bad for him.

"Not necessarily." Grimmjow said. "Had he been alive, he may have been able to give us some clue inadvertently."

Szayel walked out, looking exhausted. Everyone in the room stood up.

"I managed to get the bullet out. But I will have to take him to the hospital. The bullet had lodged itself in his lung and has done considerable damage. I have called the ambulance. One of you will have to come with me. He's serious."

"I'll go." Grimmjow offered.

"No. As of now, you are the highest ranking Espada here. Till Ulquiorra and Nnoitra come back, the duty of Miss Souske and Miss Inoue is your responsibility. You stick by them. Zommari, you come with me."

Grimmjow nodded and said

"Come on chick, I'll take you both to your rooms."

"Haruki stays with me. I am not letting her out of my sight after this." Orihime said. "And Szayel, please keep me informed about Barragan."

In her room, Orihime tucked a sleeping Haruki in the bed and sat down next to her. Grimmjow took a seat on the couch bed.

"Barragan will be fine, won't he?"

"Yes. He's a tough old man. He'll bounce right back."

"He...He took a bullet for us. How can I ever thank him?"

"Chick," Grimmjow said softly, "We are used to such things. He'll just be fine."

"Used to? You mean have you been shot before?"

"Yup, I have. Here." he said and lifted up his left sleeve to show an ugly scar on his bicep.

"That must have hurt!" she said, her eyes wide.

"Like a bitch. But the point is, the longer we are in a job like ours, the more we get accustomed to things like this."

"So has Ulquiorra also been shot?" Somehow the thought hurt.

"Oh yes. He was at the receiving end of some pretty nasty stuff. Ask him sometime. Although given how vocal he is, he probably will simply answer 'yes.'" he imitated Ulquiorra's voice perfectly.

Orihime had to laugh.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Depends on what you are going to ask."

"What is going on between you and Nel?"

Without batting an eyelid he said "I'll answer that if you tell me exactly why did Ulquiorra lie for you? What were you trying to hide?"

The two of them stared at each other, knowing that they both had asked questions that the other wasn't willing to answer.

"So now we know the 'no-go' areas, huh?" Orihime said with a grin.

"Looks like we do."

"Although I am surprised you didn't ask me how I knew something is up between the two of you."

"Oh that! I knew you saw us. Behind the bush."

"God, you Espadas!" Orihime was exasperated.

Grimmjow grinned.

Some time later the door of her room was slammed open and a panting Ulquiorra stood there. He took in the scene and said,

"Thanks Jagerjaquez. I'll take over from here. Nnoitra is looking for you to help him identify the body."

"Cool. See you guys around." Grimmjow stood up and walked away.

Ulquiorra closed the door and walked up to her. Something prompted her to stand up.

"Are you alright?" he whispered, standing close to her.

"I am fine." She whispered back.

Without another word he pulled her into his embrace, much to her surprise. It however didn't last long and she hugged him back. The two stood, in each other's arms as she heard his heart slow down to a steady rhythm. She looked up at him and saw an emotion in his green eyes that she had never seen before. Somehow, it seemed completely natural when he slowly lowered his head and took her lips in a slow kiss. Her eyes fluttered shut. His tongue begged entrance and she willingly complied. He explored her with his tongue, and she responded with every fiber of her being. His hand slid slowly from her back to her waist, pulling her closer. She responded by snaring her fingers through his raven hair. She lost herself in the moment. For her, an entire lifetime had been compressed in a few moments. The magic of the moment however, ended much too soon for her. He pulled back and turned around.

"I am so sorry madam. It won't happen again."

She stood there, stunned, her most precious moment shattering into pieces.


	14. The Red Thread

I read the story/folklore/legend of 'The Red Thread' somewhere. But for the world of me I can't remember where I read it. If someone does, please PM me the details. Thanks in advance.

Not much else to say about this chapter, so read on and do review. Thanks for the support people. You guys rock!

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><p><strong>Chapter 13- The Red Thread<strong>

Cinnamon! It had taken Orihime some time to realise how he tasted, but now she was perfectly certain. He tasted of cinnamon. She could still taste him on her lips, still feel his hand on her waist. Even now, hours after he had pulled back, she could still feel him on herself. It was as though every inch of her that he had touched had been born anew. She could still feel his silken black hair in her fingers. She hugged Haruki who sleeping next to her and smiled in the darkness. He hadn't spoken to her all day after that. Hadn't even looked at her. She however had a tough time keeping her eyes off him. She wasn't aware of it, but she had been smiling all through the remaining day. Through her smiling daze however, she had come to realize a few things. One, she wasn't wrong in her thinking that she had fallen in love with Ulquiorra. Two, she loved being kissed by him and had been missing him from the moment he had pulled back. Three, he was probably embarrassed and hence had retreated into his shell. Four, she was going to kiss him again, somehow. Making up her mind, she smiled yet again, closed her eyes and went off to sleep.

In some distance, her roommate however could not sleep. He was tossing and turning restlessly. His body was tired, he knew he needed to rest but apparently his mind didn't get the memo. The events of the day played in front of his eyes over and over again. Try as he might, he couldn't forget the fear that had gripped him when he saw the barrel of the gun pointed at her. His heart leaped to his mouth when he heard the gun shot and knew he was way too far to do anything for her. His mind barely registered Barragan pushing the two girls on the floor when his Espada instincts kicked in. He ran after the man who had fired the shot. From the corner of his eyes, he saw her pulling herself from beneath Barragan.

_She's alright. She has to be._

Chanting those words to himself like a mantra, he ran at full speed after the assassin. The man ran through the labyrinthine streets of Karakura, weaving in and out of hoards of people. He was glad of the help when Nnoitra joined him in the pursuit. Their query however proved to be someone who was well trained and it took all of their efforts to finally corner him. After chasing him for sometime, Ulquiorra began to see a pattern in his attempts to escape. That helped him formulate a plan. He correctly guessed where the man would turn next. He had already instructed Nnoitra to wait for him in one place and Ulquiorra chased him to where Nnoitra was waiting. Cornered the man did what Ulquiorra knew he would do, but hoped he was too much of a coward to do so. The man swallowed a poison pill and died before either of the Espada could do anything. They knew they had to get the body back to Las Noches. However lugging a dead body across Karakura would not be easy. The two of them moved the body out of sight, then Nnoitra went to find a car for rent. It was a little over two hours before they finally reached Las Noches, without drawing attention to themselves. The two of them went over to Gin, gave their report. All through this time, Ulquiorra kept repeating to himself, _She's alright. She has to be._

Finally when Gin was satisfied he told Nnoitra to identify the body and asked Ulquiorra to resume his regular duties. He walked out of Gin's room with a dignified silence. As soon as the door closed behind him, he ran. When he slammed the door of her room, all he saw was her, sitting on the bed. He vaguely registered Grimmjow sitting there, he dismissed the Sixth Espada as smoothly as he could. He closed the door behind himself and walked over to her, unable to stop himself. All the fear, the worry, the tension he had pushed at the back of his mind came flooding back to him as he asked her the question that was haunting him.

"I am fine". It took mere three words from her to feel wave after wave of relief wash over him, giving him a peace he had never experienced before. He didn't even think before pulling her into his arms or giving her the kiss. When he had claimed her lips, every single thought escaped his mind. All he could think of was how soft she felt against him. Her rain drops like smell enveloped his senses, her honey like taste intoxicated him. It was with a lot of effort that he reminded himself, she was forbidden. Not only was she the step-daughter of his employer but also in love with someone else. She was off limits and he would do well to remember that.

_But she responded._ A persistent voice in his mind spoke up. That part bothered him particularly. She had indeed responded and he had no clue why. Somehow he managed to convince himself that she just reacted the way a sixteen-seventeen year old girl would react to what was probably her first kiss. That's all there was to it. He vowed to himself that he would maintain a steady objectivity from here on. He needed to survive this job and being objective was the only way he would be able to do it. His mind made up, he forced himself to fall into a restless sleep, aware that he probably wouldn't be able to hold on to his resolution.

Next morning, when Orihime stepped out of the bathroom, she was greeted with a sight that made her smile. Haruki was sitting on Ulquiorra's lap, with her favorite story book open on her lap and Ulquiorra was reading it out to her. He was doing a horrible job of it, his expression less face and monotone voice made the story sound so different that if Orihime hadn't known the story word for word, she wouldn't have identified it. Haruki however, seemed to be staring at Ulquiorra's face with rapt attention. Orihime stood some distance away, looking at the two of them with a smile. It was some time before Haruki spotted her.

"Olihime!"

"Haruki, good morning! When did you get up?"

"You wele in bathloom. Uquila was leading me the stoly."

"Yes dear, I saw." she looked up at Ulquiorra and asked "Any news of Barragan yet?"

"Szayel had called late last night. He's stable now."

"Thank God!" Orihime sighed and offered a quick prayer "Can we go and meet him today?"

"I will ask Szayel."

"Also, I want to talk to my step...my uncle." she hastily corrected herself when she realised Haruki was still in the room. Ulquiorra nodded.

Ulquiorra sat on one end of the table listening to the conversation between Orihime and Aizen.

"Haruki was attacked yesterday."

"Yes, I heard." Aizen's voice sounded smooth over the phone.

"I assume you are coming back?"

"No. Why should I? It's not like she was hurt."

"Have you at least spoken to her?"

"I don't understand why that would be necessary."

"Oh I don't know, maybe because you are her Father?"

Aizen laughed and said, "I know my duties as a father, cousin. You don't have to remind me of it."

Suddenly Orihime felt suffocated. She closed her eyes and counted to ten.

"Barragan was seriously injured trying to save us."

"Yes I am aware of it. He will be justly rewarded."

"REWARDED?" Orhime screamed "That man almost died trying to protect your daughter, the least you can do is call him at the hospital and thank him."

"Really Miss Inoue, do I need to learn etiquette lessons from you now? If you have nothing better to talk about right now, I have work to do."

"Mere etiquette lessons won't suffice for you, _cousin, _you need a crash course on humanity."

She dis-connected the call before Aizen could respond.

Ulquiorra knew she was seething, but since Grimmjow, Nnoitra and Haruki were in the car they were taking to the hospital, she held her tongue. Grimmjow kept up a constant chatter, effectively silencing everyone in the car with the sole exception of Haruki. The child was enthusiastically keeping up with Grimmjow and neither of them apparently knew what the word 'quiet' meant. Thankfully for Orihime, she had tuned them out, lost in her rage. Ulquiorra was concentrating on driving, so he wasn't paying attention to them. Nnoitra however was reaching the end of his patience and soon enough he screamed,

"Will the two of you SHUT UP?"

The two fell quiet, for all of two seconds before resuming with renewed vigor. Nnoitra rolled his visible eye. Thankfully, Ulquiorra pulled into the hospital's parking lot shortly afterward.

Yammy was already at the hospital, as was Arroniero. Grimmjow joined them. Leaving Haruki with the three Espadas, Orihime walked into Barragan's cabin along with Ulquiorra and Nnoitra. Barragan looked exhausted and frail with all the pipes and tubes going in and out of him. The old man heard them coming and opened his eyes.

"Hi." he said, his voice sounding muffled through the oxygen mask and drugs.

"Hello Barragan." Orihime said.

He smiled weakly.

"How are you feeling?" she said as she gently grasped his hand.

"Other than being groggy, thirsty, a little disorientated and in a strangely chatty mood, perfectly fine." he croaked.

"Barragan," she said smiling, "How can I ever thank you enough?"

"Miss Inoue I..."

"It's Orihime for you." She said with a smile.

"Orihime, I just did what I would do for my little girls." he whispered.

"You have daughters?"

"Yes, two of them. They are much older than you now though, but you sort of remind me of my younger one."

Orhime's hand flew to her mouth. Suddenly overwhelmed, she ran out of the room. Ulquiorra noticed her tears and excused himself from his comrades. Outside Grimmjow looked at him with a raised eyebrow, but Ulquiorra waved at him.

He found her sitting on a bench in the balcony, overlooking a fountain.

"Are you alright?"

"I just...just suddenly miss my father." she said, choking.

He sat down next to her, waiting for her to continue.

"You know, I don't remember much of him. In fact, I have forgotten how he used to look. But you know, I distinctly remember riding on his shoulders. My brother would dance around us in circles, while he would hold me, and tell us stories. Today, Barragan reminded me of him. He is willing to die for his daughters. And then there is a father like Aizen Souske. His daughter gets attacked and he doesn't even bother to call her? I always thought he was at least protective of Haruki, but I was mistaken. That bastard doesn't know how to be a parent. I am more of a parent to that child that he ever will be. And she is his own daughter." Her voice was shaking with grief and fury, "I am his step daughter, so maybe he has no parental feelings towards me, and therefore he did what he did. But Haruki? His own blood? How could he?"

Ulquiorra's blood had turned cold with one sentence, the one that confirmed all his suspicions.

"What did he do to you, Hime?" he whispered.

She blinked, looked at him as though she had forgotten he was there. She paled slightly before changing tact at the speed of light.

"Have you ever heard the story of the Red Thread?"

Ulquiorra knew what she was doing, and he decided to humor her for the time being. She was too agitated. Plus they were in a place where they could easily be overheard. He decided he would ask his question again later that night. He shook his head indicating he hadn't.

"According to legend, each person has a Red Thread tied to their pinkie." she emphasised her point by holding up her tiniest finger "One end is with them, and the other is with the person they are meant for. We humans are supposed to find out the person who holds the other end of the thread."

"You believe in that?"

"I didn't, till recently. Now I think I do." She said staring at her hand.

Ulquiorra looked at her and wondered about the mystery that was Orihime Inoue. The more he thought he understood her, the more she confused him. How could anyone move from such extreme rage and sorrow to the strange restrained happiness he was seeing in her face? She had tears in her eyes and yet she was smiling. As he looked, a tear dropped from her eyes into her hand.

"Gosh! Look at me. Getting all teary eyed. What must Barragan think of me. Let's go. I still have to thank him properly." She wiped her tears and walked away, head held high.

Behind her, Ulquiorra felt a strange surge of respect for the girl who was battling her demons alone and with a very brave face.


	15. Albatross & Grapevine

Thank you so much everyone for all the support. I am really honored to receive such an overwhelming response. This chapter is mainly to forward the romance of the lead pair, so includes some Ulquihime fluff as well as some emotional development for the two.

Please read and review. :-)

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><p><strong>Chapter 14- Albatross &amp; Grapevine<strong>

On returning from the hospital, Orihime ran to the kitchen, claiming she was hungry and whipped up an omelet for herself. Although calling that bizarre concoction an omelet was probably an insult. She threw in some really weird things in that that were inclusive of but not limited to almonds, chocolate chips, some pineapple pieces and to Ulquiorra's horror a topping of Vanilla ice cream. She had offered to make one for him but he politely declined and made one for himself. He never considered himself to be a good cook but next to her, he felt positively proud of his bacon and cheese filled omelet.

They were settling down for the night. It had become a sort of routine for them to spend some time in the night talking before going to bed. Usually it was Orihime who would talk and he would listen. He liked to listen to her. However, this day, Ulquiorra intended to talk.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure." she said, brushing her hair like she did every night before sleeping.

"I am curious, how come your friends have never noticed those scars on your wrists?"

She turned around to face him with a small knowing smile on her face.

"I knew you would ask me that question some day."

"Well?"

She walked over to her table and pulled out something from a drawer. She held it up and he realised that they were wrist bands, like the ones athletes wore.

"In winters, I wear full sleeves, so that prevents them from seeing the scars. And in summers, these help. I have told them that I broke both my wrists when I was a child and so my wrists are very weak. So I need to wear them, always."

"They bought that?"

"They don't question anything I say. They seem to think I am too innocent to lie."

He shook his head. He really disliked it that her friends were completely oblivious to what seemed like a glaring issue to him.

"There is another thing I wanted to ask you."

The smile on her face faltered, as though she knew what he was going to ask.

"What is happening to you? What are you hiding?"

The last remnants of the smile slid away from her face as she abruptly sat down on the floor.

"Please," she whispered, "don't ask me that. I am not ready."

At least she was not denying that something was wrong. He believed that to be a big start. He scooted down from the couch to the floor next to her and said,

"Sometimes sharing helps."

"Somethings are too...difficult to share. Some burdens are meant to borne alone." Her eyes had a far away look.

"Even if the burden is eating you away?"

"Even then. It's my burden. The albatross on my neck."

"But..."

She put her fingers on his lips silencing him, "If I could speak about it, you would have been the one I told everything. But I can't, at least not yet. Give me some time, I'll try. But please, don't ask me this again. I..I cannot tell the truth and I cannot lie to you. Please, this is a request."

He knew he wouldn't be able to decline her request. He held her hand in his and moved it from his lips. Something in his chest contorted painfully when he saw the pain in her eyes.

"I am so sorry Hime. I didn't want to cause you this pain." He whispered, her hand still in his.

"You? No. Never. This pain is the legacy from someone else. The gift you have given me, transcends all of this. Because of you, I am learning to trust again. But I still have a long way to go."

She gently put her head on his shoulder, making him catch his breath slightly.

"Thank you Ulquiorra." She whispered.

He used his free hand to pat her head gently. Realizing that he was dangerously close to kissing her yet again, he stiffened a bit.

"You should go to bed. We have school tomorrow."

She looked at him and smiled, as if she knew exactly what had gone through his mind. She pecked him on his cheek and said,

"Goodnight."

Behind her Ulquiorra sighed inwardly, so much for objectivity.

Next morning they got ready as usual. Ulquiorra noticed that she had bags under her eyes. He felt a stab of guilt seeing her. He walked over to her and said,

"You didn't sleep well." it wasn't a question.

"It's no big deal." She said with a smile.

They walked over to Haruki's room where Orihime got the child ready and sent her to her school. As Haruki walked away with Nnoitra, Orihime bit her lower lip.

"Will she be alright?"

"Don't worry, Nnoitra is excellent."

They were only a couple of minutes away from the place where they would meet Rukia Kuchiki and Tatsuki Arisawa when something caught his eyes. As discreetly as he could, he looked sideways. He wasn't really surprised to see Shinji Hirako lurking in the shadows. They walked a few paces before he said,

"Don't look now, but Shinji Hirako is stalking you."

"Is he now?" She said slowly with a gleam in her eyes "I knew I had a stalker, but I didn't know who it was. But now..." She was rubbing her hands with a downright evil smirk. "What say I give him a bit of a shock?"

"What are you.." He didn't have a chance to finish his statement for Orihime had dragged him by his tie and slammed her lips onto his.

He was too shocked to respond as she deepened her kiss. She snared her arms around him, closed her eyes and probed his lips slowly with her tongue. All his resistance melted as he responded to her. His arms slid around her as he balanced her against himself. He met her with equal fervor as he snaked his right hand through her hair. His left hand was at her waist with his thumb drawing small circles. She moaned into his lips and moved closer. She could feel his rippling muscles through the fabric of his shirt. Her entire world was full of him, she could only think of how he felt against her. They slowly pulled back, still in each other's arms. Her face was covered in a delicate pink and a glow emitted from it making her look extremely beautiful. Before he knew what he was doing, he dipped his head to her jaw and lined it with small fluttering kisses. In reply, she arched back, allowing him greater access. He slowly made his way to the side of her neck, his right hand now tracing lines on the other side of her neck. A shaking moan escaped her lips and her entire body shuddered. The looked deep into each others eyes and he lowered his head again to claim her lips in another kiss. She responded enthusiastically, melting into his arms.

Someone cleared their throat next to them, startling them both. Orihime turned a deep shade of scarlet as she shot out of his arms and turned around to meet Tatsuki and Rukia, who were looking at them with opposite expressions. Rukia's grin couldn't have been wider and Tatsuki's eyes couldn't have been smaller. From the corner of his eyes Ulquiorra noticed the shadow slip away. He sighed.

"Well, well, well" Rukia said gleefully "I had no idea I'd run into something so interesting when I asked Tatsuki to walk over this way to see why you guys are late."

"Rukia, I.." Orihime tried to say

"Chill girl. I am very happy for you." The smaller girl hugged her tightly. Then turned to Ulquiorra grinning widely "And you sir, you turned out to be a sly one."

"It's not how it looks."

"Really?" Tatsuki said, her hands on her hips "To me it looked like you guys can't have enough of each other."

"There was so much electricity there, you guys could light the entire Karakura town for a day." Rukia added laughing.

"Can we go to school, please?" She said, her face rivaling a tomato.

"Yes, lets go." Tatsuki said.

Near the gates of the school, Ulquiorra looked straight at Orihime and said,

"A minute please?"

"All her minutes are yours anyway." Rukia added with a wink and dragged a seemingly reluctant Tatsuki away.

Ulquiorra stared at the two retreating girls, shook his head and looked at Orihime,

"Do you realise what did this is going to start?"

"A grapevine." She said flatly, "I care a damn. Do you?"

He shook his head. She grinned widely, snaked her fingers through his and walked into the school.

As Ulquiorra had predicted, they were the target of many whispers and pointed fingers. The two of them walked into the classroom and he readied himself for what he knew was about to come.

"Hime!" Chizuru hugged her from behind, "What is this I am hearing?"

"Chizuru, for the last time don't call me by that name. And leave me."

"Hime, Hime please, tell me all this is a lie." The distraught red heard said desperately, hugging her uncomfortably.

Ulquiorra easily pried Orihime out of her arms and pushed Chizuru slightly.

"I think she has repeatedly asked you not to call her by that name."

"Don't interfere." Chizuru said angrily, "How I greet my friend is none of your business."

"Your 'greeting' is improper and your 'friendship' is unwanted. And as for whatever you are hearing, they are absolutely true. Deal with it."

He turned around and walked over to his seat. Orihime followed.

"Don't you think that was a little too harsh?" she asked.

"Does it bother you?"

"No." She said truthfully, "I think she will get the hint now. Thanks."

For some reason, despite being the target of the entire school's gossip, she felt liberated. She was lost in the kiss. She wasn't expecting such a passionate response from him and it thrilled her beyond words. She knew that according to the school rumors, he was now her boyfriend. She found she didn't mind it one bit and was more than willing to play along. She bit her lower lip slightly, as she remembered his touch, blushing inadvertently.

Ulquiorra noticed quite a few scowls, Shinji Hirako primary among them. He was expecting to be very troubled with what had happened, but strangely he wasn't. He was at peace. He didn't regret anything that had happened. He was in fact feeling a little reckless and possessive. He no longer cared if she loved another man or not. She was his. He was going to ensure she knew it too, as did everyone else. He was no longer willing to stand back and play the passive role. He was going to claim her heart, consequences be damned.

At lunch, they were predictably surrounded by the entire group, sans Chizuru, who was sulking.

"I told you Rukia," Ichigo said only half jokingly, "something fishy was on."

"Damn! I never guessed." Renji said, grinning, "Alright out with it guys, how did all this happen."

"I have no idea," Orihime replied, smiling brightly "it just happened."

"But guys, in the middle of the street?" Ishida said.

"You won't understand Ishida, you need to be in the same shoes to get that." Renji said.

"And you get it?" Ishida said skeptically, "How exactly? Which girl is dumb enough to date you?"

"Or brave enough?" Ichigo added.

The three of them engaged in an argument. Orihime laughed and turned to Tatsuki

"I can see you are upset."

"No Orihime. I am not." The girl said smiling slightly. "You deserve all the happiness you can get. Only, couldn't it have been someone I could actually talk to?"

Orihime smiled. She knew Tatsuki was probably feeling betrayed that she hadn't told her the truth about them and that they had to discover it by an accident. She wanted to dispel Tatsuki's misunderstanding but that would involve admitting that she had lied to her almost every day of their friendship. Something she couldn't get herself to do. She merely hugged the girl and thanked her.

Meanwhile Rukia looked straight at Ulquiorra and said,

"Take good care of our friend please. She is an innocent little girl at heart, please don't hurt her."

"Don't worry." he whispered, "I won't harm a hair on her head." _Or let anyone else do so_. He added mentally.


	16. Tatsuki's concern and Grimmjow's tale

So I am back with new chapter. This story has got 74 reviews so far. 74! That means one review shy of a quarter of a century! I am blown away! I had vowed to myself that if I reach a 70+ number, I'll thank every reviewer in my author's note so here it goes.

Thank you so much to Lillarin, Ulquishinee, Ranipaki, Cerice belle, Crazy4music, Safuuru, Aralorn, Snow, Fantasygirlgowild113, Ulquihime4eva, AntiSociety, BlackDiamond07, Himethebest, U.S., Ddurga74, Purpler, Akire-chan, anony, Skatora, shechan, layalatania and everyone else who's added my story as an alert or as a favorite. You guys keep me going.

Crazy4music, Blackdiamond07 and Safuuru- Grimmjow's tale is here. Sorry it's a little later than when I actually intended it to be, but here it is. The last time I tried to write it (Actually was trying to put it in the last chapter), Grimmy was being OOC. Now he's the person we all know.

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><p><strong>Chapter 15- Tatsuki's concern and Grimmjow's tale<strong>

Orihime had known Tatsuki long enough to know the conversation at lunch wasn't the end of it. She was waiting all day for some kind of hint from the girl that would confirm her suspicion and before long she got it. As they were parting ways, Tatsuki shook her her hand and Orihime felt a piece of paper being pressed in her palm. Once the two black haired girls had left, she opened the piece of paper on which in Tatsuki's untidy scrawl was written- _Call me when alone._

She showed the note to Ulquiorra who looked at her quizzically.

"She is not comfortable with the latest developments." Orihime stated.

"That's because she doesn't like me."

"No, that's not it. She just feels protectively about me."

Ulquiorra bit back a scathing response. He had no experience in winning a girl's affections, but he was sure that being scathing about one of her best friends was not the way to go. They continued to walk in silence for a while before Ulquiorra spoke up again.

"Call her. I won't listen." Saying so he stopped and let her walk a few steps ahead of him.

Orihime smiled. She had been very curious as to what Tatsuki might have to say, hence that little encouragement was all that she needed.

"Tatsuki, what happened?" She asked when the call connected.

"Orihime, I am very worried."

"About what?"

"Please tell me this isn't a rebound."

_Rebound?_ Orihime thought. _Rebound of what? Ten years of being raped day in out?_

Closing her eyes to push back the disturbing thought, she asked "How do you mean?"

"I know you have had feelings for Ichigo for the longest of time. But now he's with Rukia. Three days later, I see you kissing another guy, what am I to make out of it?"

Orihime sighed, "I stopped having any kind of feelings for him a long while ago. I just didn't know it. All he is to me now is a friend. Nothing more nothing less. So no, it's not a rebound."

"I don't know Orihime, there is something that is nagging me. Something that tells me that there is more to the story than what meets the eye."

Orihime's breath caught slightly, "What do you mean?"

"There is something about Ulquiorra. I don't know how to put it, but he doesn't seem like an average high school student to me. His movements...they are of someone who is trained in some form of combat. I should know."

_Shit!_ "Yes..he is..uh trained."

"It's not just that, Orihime. The guy is dangerous. My instincts tell me that he is a formidable enemy. Be careful girl, he is not someone to take lightly."

_Shit! Shit! Shit! Just how much has Tatsuki observed?_

Orihime clenched her fists to calm her rising pulse and said "You are over thinking Tatsuki. I have known him for a while now. Don't worry so much."

"Well, if you say so. I didn't mean to hurt you or offend you in any way. I just wish your happiness. If he's the one who makes you happy, then I am happy for you."

"Thank you, Tatsuki." She disconnected the call, frowning. "Ulquiorra, we might have a problem."

He caught up with her and raised an eyebrow.

"Tatsuki is beginning to have doubts about you. She knows you are trained in combat and thinks that you are a formidable enemy."

_At least her instincts as a combat expert are in place_. He thought. Aloud he said "She is right."

"Doesn't that bother you? What if she figures out who you really are?" Orihime was beginning to panic slightly.

"It's highly unlikely, but even if she does, so what?"

"Don't you see, she might start asking questions. Uncomfortable questions. Questions that will shatter the world I have created so carefully. I will have to answer questions that I am not ready to answer. I will have to see something I never want to see. They'll hate me. I know they will. They cannot not hate me. Not after everything. I..."

"Orihime Inoue!" Ulquiorra said sternly "Nothing of the sort will happen. I won't let something like that happen. Trust me."

She looked at his emerald eyes and slowly felt the unreasonable panic ebb away. He was right. He was there now. She wasn't all alone anymore. He would be there to hold her when she needed it. He would not let anything happen to her. She trusted him. She sighed and said,

"Sorry. I guess I hit the panic button."

He nodded, put his hands in his pockets and started walking towards Las Noches. Orihime stood looking a him for a moment longer then ran to catch up.

At the gates of Las Noches, they were greeted with a very strange sight. Grimmjow was walking towards the gate looking disheveled which was a surprise because he was usually very well dressed. When he reached closer, Orihime noticed he had some weird looking spots on his clothes and was clutching a few flowers. On spotting them he dispiritedly said,

"Hello Miss Inoue, Ulquiorra."

Both of them were taken aback.

"Who are you? And what have you done to Grimmjow?" Orihime asked.

He smiled slightly and said "Very funny, chick."

"Oh it's really you." She let out an exaggerated sigh of relief as Ulquiorra hit the buzzer to let the three of them in.

"What's wrong with you?" Ulquiorra asked as they walked through the Las Noches garden.

"Long story." He said.

"We are not going anywhere." Orihime said.

"You are stubborn, you know that." Grimmjow said seriously, looking at her.

"Yes, I have been told so before. But we are not discussing my character traits here. Something's seriously wrong with you, and we want to know what."

He sighed "Alright! I will tell you, jeez. Let the Emo King finish his report to Gin, then we'll settle in your room and you can listen to my tale. Happy?"

"Very." Orihime said with a big smile.

"Although I need a coffee and you will make me one."

"Deal!" Orihime said enthusiastically.

Ulquiorra cringed inwardly. He had once made the mistake of having Orihime's coffee and he wasn't keen on repeating the experience.

"You need one, Ulquiorra?"

"No." He said quickly, thankful that they had reached Gin's office "Excuse me."

"Sure, meet us at my room. I'll finish our coffees, Grimmjow will be with me, so I won't be without an Espada." She said.

He nodded and walked in, as the two made their way to the kitchen.

"What the fuck is this?" Grimmjow said after he drank the first sip of the coffee, "You trying to kill me, chick?"

"What's wrong?" Orihime asked seriously.

"WHAT'S WRONG? You call this a coffee? You don't add garlic in coffee!"

"Oh God! You and your boring taste buds!" She said with a roll of her eyes.

He gaped at her as she drank her coffee with leisure, sitting cross legged on her bed

"Is she for real?" He looked at Ulquiorra who was sitting next to him on the couch-bed.

Ulquiorra nodded solemnly.

"So I kept my end of the deal, now your turn."

"This is so not my day. I should have stayed in bed. First Nel now this."

"Aha! So Nel is involved, that explains the flowers."

"Which she threw back at me, after mutilating the bouquet."

Orihime struggled to keep her face straight at the mental image and said, "Why would she do that?"

"Who's Nel?" Ulquiorra asked, "That green haired girl we met at the sleepover?"

"It's Turquoise." Orihime corrected.

Both the men looked at her puzzled.

"The color of her hair, it's Turquoise, not green."

"What's the difference?" Grimmjow asked incredulously.

"Really? See Ulquiorra's eyes, those are green. Grass is green. Leaves are green. Does Nel's hair look _green_ to you?"

"Interesting!" Grimmjow said with a crooked smile, "The first example of green that comes to your mind is not grass or leaves but Emo King's eyes. Hmmm."

"The story, Sexta." Ulquiorra said stoically. However, he couldn't help feeling a little pleased at Grimmjow's observation.

"Oh right! So the story goes that I took flowers for her.."

"Hold on!" Orihime said, "Start from the beginning. Not the latest chapter."

He threw her a dirty look and said "Alright! Well, Nel and I have known each other for a long time. A little over eleven years. We were in training together."

"You mean when you were training as a mercenary?" Orihime was shocked.

"No, when I was training to catch butterflies. What other training could I possibly mean?"

"Whatever, continue."

"So we sort of were in a relationship for about two-two and a half years. Then some six years ago, while we were still dating, Nel started having doubts about herself. Somehow she had come to realise that she wasn't cut out to be a mercenary. You see, most of us are orphans, with no family so to speak, so that if we do die on job, it's not very messy. Plus it's easier to mould an orphan who has no outer influence to change their mind. And in case something happens to them during training, no one will come to the academies with complains. Anyway, I am digressing. The point is, she had nowhere to go. All that stress was really beginning to get to her. Few days later, I got my first job as a freelancer. I had to kidnap someone and if need be, kill him as well. I did my job. But that was the first time I had ever taken someone's life and I was disturbed. I needed someone to listen to me. But Nel, she got angry at me. She hated the fact that I could kill someone so easily. You know me, I got angry and said a few things I should not have. She got mad too and asked me to get out. What she actually meant was get out for a while, leave her alone for sometime. I took her meaning literally and walked out of her life completely. Not knowing that it was a time when both of us should have supported each other. The other day when I met her, I came to know that she has been waiting for me for all this years. A phonecall was all she needed. Apparently she searched for me continuously for two years, not knowing that I had got a job as an Espada and moved to Karakura. She co-incidentally moved to Karakura a couple of months back and now works as a self- defence trainer in a Dojo. She found her way without me, but I can't. I am lost without her. I need her back in my life. But she is not willing to take me back. She says I need to make up for the two years of her life that she spent looking for me, before she's even willing to listen to what I have to say."

"I knew you were an idiot." Ulquiorra said quietly.

"I was sixteen, Emo King. What do you expect?"

"Hey, I am sixteen!" Orihime said indignantly.

Ignoring her pointless protest Ulquiorra said "Are you still sixteen? Be a man, go get her. Be persistent."

"Think that'll work?"

"Should."

"Cool."

"That's it?" Orihime said surprised. "That's your piece of advice? He's stressed and all you can say is be a man? Be persistent?"

"That's how men communicate, chick."

Orihime muttered something about men and said "Well, funnily enough I agree. Persistence will pay off. But exactly how do you plan to pursue her?"

"Flowers didn't work. You have any more ideas?"

"Flowers were right move. But how about adding a card saying 'sorry'? And send her flowers everyday. Don't go in front of her, since she's unwilling to see your face, but make sure she knows that you are the one sending the flowers. She will throw them away, tear the card, stomp on the flowers initially. You'll feel bad, I know. But she'll capitulate eventually. Make sure you pamper her. Girls love this kind of stuff."

Grimmjow grinned "Super. I'll do that. In exchange for your wonderful tip chick, I'll give you one. A short cut to a guy's heart is through his stomach, give him good food and he'll be a fan of you. Not garlic laced coffee."

He successfully dodged the pillow Orihime threw at him.

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><p><strong>Author's note:<strong> Ok, now I am not very happy with the way Grimmjow's past came out. Nel's anger isn't showing through. So, soon enough I'll introduce a scene where Nel's side of the story comes to light. Then maybe you'll come to know why Nel's so pissed.


	17. Thoughts

This is a smaller chapter focussing mainly on thoughts of three main characters- the two protagonists and the main antagonist. Also revealed is Aizen and Aiko's past as I peek into Aizen's convoluted mind, therefore the first half of the chapter is a little dark as it talks about Aizen's thoughts for Orihime. If it's not to your taste, (I know I was pretty disgusted writing those lines, but it was necessary) only read the part in italics and then move to the light Ulquihime fluff.

I wanted to introduce Nel's side of the story in this chapter, but I couldn't fit it in without it seeming forced. Hence will probably do it in the next chapter.

Thanks for your support. Please read and review.

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><p><strong>Chapter 16- Thoughts<strong>

"The documents you asked for, sir." Hallibel left the documents on Aizen's table, nodded and walked away.

Aizen slowly massaged the sore spot beside his right shoulder blade as he watched Hallibel walk away, her hips swaying slightly. _Damn! She's hot._ He thought, feeling the familiar stirring in his lower stomach. He would have loved to have Hallibel withering under him, only thing is, she was a little too old for his tastes. Not that that ever deterred him from having any woman he wanted to, but he didn't really want Hallibel that badly. If someday, he desperately wanted a woman and there was none around, maybe then he would go for her, but he doubted that would ever happen. After all Orihime was always around. He shuddered as he felt himself go hard just thinking about the girl. She was perhaps the best thing that had happened to him. Also there was the fact that under her tutelage was Haruki who was turning out to be equally beautiful. Just a couple of more years and she would be just the perfect age to know how a man was supposed to feel. Being her father, it was his duty to teach it to her, just like he was teaching her sister. He just had to wait for a couple of more years, but he didn't mind. Aizen Souske was a patient man.

He remembered clearly how Orihime had come into his life.

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><p>"<em>Leave me!" Aiko Inoue screamed as her employer grabbed her from behind.<em>

"_Come on, don't pretend you don't want it." Aizen growled as he groped her breast._

_The junior accountant grabbed the ball point pen tightly in her hand and jabbed it into her assailant's arm with all her might. With a scream he pulled back, Aiko turned around and slapped him hard across his face._

Bitch!_ No one slapped him and got away with it, especially a woman. He was now hell bent on showing her who was the master._

_Next day Aiko received a big bouquet of yellow roses and a card saying sorry. He even said that while he would totally understand if she resigned, he would never be able to forgive himself if she did indeed resign. Since he genuinely seemed apologetic and her family needed the extra money, Aiko stayed._

_A year later, tragedy stuck. The car in which Kasumi and Sora Inoue were traveling met with an accident. The bereaved widow and her young daughter were left alone. Her employer came as her saviour. He seemed genuinely grieved by her sorrow and offered her support, his only condition, Orihime Inoue be introduced to the world as a distant cousin to whom the newly weds have given shelter. The grief stricken woman agreed, much to her daughter's dismay. It was on the day of their wedding Aizen first saw her. At first he had been very angry that the little girl had survived when she too was supposed to have been in the car. But as was told to him later, the girl had fallen sick and had therefore volunteered to stay home. Now, seeing the ginger haired, grey eyed girl smiling up at him, he knew some God loved him. Why else would he keep this girl alive when Aizen had planned for her death? Just the way Orihime smiled at him, with her sparkling eyes, he knew she wanted him as much as he wanted her._

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><p>Aizen smiled, stood up and walked over to the window. He remembered the time he had tied her to the bed post, blind folded and gagged her. Oh God how much she had flailed. The more she had flailed, the more he was turned on. The more he played with her body, the more she flailed. She kept shaking her head repeatedly as he fondled her. He knew how much she enjoyed pretending to be angry at him. It was one of the things about her he absolutely loved. She kept acting as though she hated him, being very feisty with him. But he knew she just couldn't stop herself from coming back to him. She wanted him, even after ten years, she hadn't had enough of him. He sighed. Four days, four days later he would be back at Las Noches. This time he would tie her to the bed again. It had been ages since he had done so. A little over two years if he remembered correctly. He had to do it again.<p>

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><p>Orhime sighed, as she leaned forward trying to concentrate on what the professor was saying. But her ind kept drifting to what was happening between her and Ulquiorra. It started last night. Grimmjow had stayed with them till dinner. The three of them had played Monopoly in which Grimmjow cheated shamelessly but still she won, much to Grimmjow's chagrin. After dinner, the two of them finished their studies for the day. As usual Orihime had been chatting non-stop about something as they were getting ready to go to sleep. She was busy brushing her hair and wasn't at all expecting what happened next. All of a sudden Ulquiorra grabbed her arm and turned her around, bringing her so close to himself so that there was only about an inch between them. Orihime lost track of her thoughts as she looked at his intensely handsome face. Her heartbeat became erratic as he slowly lowered his head, his cheek slightly brushing against her, knocking her breath out. She closed her eyes and surrendered herself to whatever he wanted to do. He gently bit her ear lobe sending shocks of pleasure tingling down her spine. She felt his hot breath against her ear as he breathed<p>

"Goodnight Hime."

He pulled back, turned around and walked over to the couch bed. She stood there, breathless, her heart beating at a million beats per minute. He had completely disarmed her with a simple act. He practically hadn't even touched her and she had melted like a wax statue facing fire. She was so lost in her own world, she hadn't seen the small smirk playing on Ulquiorra's lips. As he settled down on the couch bed, Orihime realized what he had just done. She narrowed her eyes and gripped her hairbrush tightly.

_Is this how you mean to play Ulquiorra Schiffer? Fine. So be it._ She thought fiercely.

She had woken up early in the morning, before him and run into the bathroom. From the cupboard she fished out her favorite shampoo and body wash that smelled of apples. She smiled as she turned on the shower. He had no idea what was coming his way. When she stepped out of the bathroom, she noticed he had just woken up. He hadn't noticed her other than a passing glance as he ran his hand through his hair. She stood next to her table pretending to read something, waiting for the her plan to kick in. Ulquiorra slowly made his way to the bathroom passing her on the way. He stopped suddenly, his eyes widened slightly as he turned around and stared at her.

"Something the matter?" She asked innocently.

"No. Nothing." he said and continued to walk.

She smirked slightly as she watched his retreating figure. She hadn't missed the increase in his breathing. Nor the slight clenching of his hands.

This was the first time in her life that she was flirting with someone and she enjoyed it. Although she was scared. These were uncharted territory for her and Ulquiorra a man like no other man. She could see in his eyes that he was going to get back at her for this morning. She felt a strange thrill overcome her as she waited for him to make his move.

Beside her, Ulquiorra was in his own world. He hadn't forgotten that Aizen was due to be back in four days. Four days in which he had to make her trust in him. Four days in which he had to come up with a plan of how to keep Aizen away from her. He had a vague plan in his mind but he wasn't sure he could enact it. It depended on a lot of things. Her trusting him and playing along, Aizen buying his story. He knew his employer was a clever man and chances of him buying his story was slim to none.

He was very was annoyed at himself for not being able to come up with a better story. He knew his plan would work maybe once, twice at the most, if at all, before Aizen caught up. His ideas were all temporary. Nothing was coming to his mind that would ensure permanent safety of this girl sitting next to him. In the past few days he had seen her laugh more often than he had seen in all the years. He wanted her to continue laughing. He didn't want her to cut herself or try commit suicide again. He didn't think he could take it again. Not after seeing this naughty, flirtatious and extremely charming side of hers. On an impulse he leaned forward and held her hand. She beamed at him as she snaked her fingers through his. That was the smile he wanted to see on her face, forever.

He felt someone poke him at the back. Startled he turned to look. A classmate pressed a piece of paper in his hand and flicked his eyes at Shinji Hirako. Nodding at the student who had given it, he turned ad opened the chit.

_I asked you to stay away from her. You didn't listen. Now you pay. Meet me at the grounds behind the school at lunch._

A challenge. Normally he would ignore such a pointless challenge. But his instincts told him that he needed to put Shinji Hirako in his place before he became a nuisance. He tore a piece of paper from the back of his notebook and wrote '_I accept'_ and gave it to the classmate sitting behind him and looked at Shinji Hirako. The classmate nodded and winked at him. Ulquiorra leaned forward and put his elbows on the table, crossing his fingers in front of him. He spotted Orihime's questioning look. He passed the chit to her. She looked at it and raised her eyebrows. He nodded slightly.

What Ulquiorra hadn't expected was the huge crowd that had gathered to see the fight. The two of them stood in the middle of a rough circle with contrasting expressions, a wide toothy grin on Shinji's face and a frown on Ulquiorra's.

"I am going to destroy you, you pretty boy."

Ulquiorra stuffed his hands deep in his pockets and looked at Shinji with an expression bordering on disdain.

"Oh dear," Orihime heard Tatsuki whisper next to her, "Shinji's going to be toast. How can he be so stupid?"

She looked at her black haired friend in askance.

"Shinji's bitten off more than he can chew." Tatsuki said with a firm whisper.

In the middle of the circle, Shinji stood staring daggers at Ulquiorra, who kept looking at him expressionlessly. Shinji yelled loudly and ran at Ulquiorra at full tilt with his fist raised. He pulled his hand back and aimed it straight at his adversary's face. The crowd gasped collectively as Shinji tried to land the punch. Merely centimeters away from his face, Ulquiorra stopped the punch with his left hand. Before anyone could understand what had happened, Ulquiorra moved Shinji's hand and with his right he punched Shinji in his stomach winding him. Shinji stumbled on the grass, out of breath and humiliated. Ulquiorra crouched next to him and whispered

"Next time I won't be so kind."

He stood up and walked away, leaving the crowd and Shinji gaping after him.


	18. Nel's woes

92 reviews! I am flattered beyond words. Thank you so much everyone for all the support. I am really really touched.

This chapter is a filler that concentrates on Nel's side of the story. No Ulquihime fluff here, but some of Orihime's madness is definitely in there. I had the weird thought (that Hime has in here) last night. It had me chuckling for a while. I was chuckling too when I was writing it.

Please read and review.

PS: this chapter is dedicated to a very good friend T2 who is going on this long trip and I am going to miss her terribly. It's not the person's real name, but that's what I call her. So there. :)

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><p><strong>Chapter 17- Nel's woes<strong>

Ulquiorra had thought that Orihime would say something to him about the fight in the afternoon, as they were walking back, but she appeared lost in her own world. They walked in silence for a while before he could take it no longer. The last time he had seen that expression on her face, she had apologized to him for hurting him and had been in a weird mood. He didn't want her to lapse into that mood again, so he decided to find out what was bothering her.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Ummm I am wondering something." She replied distantly.

"What?"

"Is blue Grimmjow's natural hair color?"

_Huh?_ "I...I have never asked, why?"

"I was wondering, if he and Nel have children, what would their hair color be?"

_Seriously?_ He thought not sure exactly how to respond.

"I mean," She continued undeterred, "Blue and Turquoise will kind of complement each other. In fact they'll go well together."

He suddenly wished he hadn't tried to find out what was on her mind.

"But I am glad it's Grimmjow who's with Nel. Imagine what would have happened if Szayel was the one with Nel instead of Grimmjow." She giggled and continued "Pink with Turquoise highlights or Turquoise with pink highlights?"

"OK stop. You are putting weird images in my mind." He said, feeling a small smile tugging his lips at the ridiculous picture she painted.

She however was having a full blown laughing fit, doubling over at the mental image wiping tears of mirth from her face. He stood with his hands in his pocket watching his sixteen year old charge behave like a sixteen year old for a change, free of all inhibitions and responsibilities that life had thrust upon her shoulders forcing her to behave like a twenty something, instead of the young girl she truly was. He didn't have the heart to ask her to stop.

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><p><span>One day ago<span>

Grimmjow stood pensively outside Nel's apartment, waiting for her to come out. He had requested Gin for a day off from his regular duty of looking after Las Noches' security, thankful that Aaroniero had taken it over for the day. He nervously fingered the bouquet he had brought, hoping that pink carnations were still her favorite flowers. Finding out where she was living was a piece of cake. He managed to get friendly with her roommate at the sleepover, which was very easy, given how talkative and flirtatious the girl was. He was honest with her that he wanted to talk to Nel and she was more than willing to give the address. He had given himself a lot of Pep talk before he managed to convince himself that he wasn't behaving like a stalker. However, staring at her door, counting every second he was waiting for her, he felt more and more like a stalker. Finally, his patience was rewarded as she stepped out, wearing a white turtleneck, grey trousers and a pink jacket with a grey scarf wrapped around her neck, her hair tied into a ponytail. She hadn't noticed him and walked silently, fiddling with what looked like an ipod. Grimmjow approached her slowly and called her out, hoping he wouldn't scare her.

"Nel."

She turned around abruptly, hands raised in a defensive pose. She dropped them once she saw who it was, her eyes taking a guarded look.

"You don't seem too surprised to see me." He asked, licking his lips lightly.

"After the way you were cozying up to Rangiku, it was only a matter of time before you showed up."

"Nel, I wanted to say I am sorry. I really am." he said, handing the bouquet to her.

To his surprise she took the bouquet. She looked at the flowers with a strange expression on her face as she ran her fingers through the flowers.

"I waited, you know." she said slowly "For a very long time."

"Nel," he stepped slightly closer since she wasn't being hostile "I know you hated it that I did it so easily. I didn't understand it back then, but I get it now. It was.."

"You think this is about you doing your job?" she said, her eyes sparking with unshed tears.

When he didn't reply she said, "You are as clueless as ever Jagerjaquez."

Something about the way she said it put the phrase 'calm before the storm' in Grimmjow's mind.

"You say you get it now. So, tell me wise man," she said almost conversationally, "how many phone calls do you think one receives in two years?"

"What?" he was perplexed.

"One thousand two hundred and thirty six. How many times does the door bell ring in two years?"

"Nel...I.." He had no idea where this was going.

"Seven hundred and twenty two times. How many times in two years do you think a person can go back and forth between their home to every possible motels, hotels, bus station, train stations, airports and every other goddamn place that a person can leave from?" Her voice was rising slowly.

"Nel...look I.."

"Three thousand four hundred and seventy eight times."

With a sinking feeling he slowly started to realise where she was going with it.

"Do you have any idea Jagerjaquez what it is like to run to the phone each of the one thousand two hundred and thirty six times, thinking maybe this is the time he's calling? Do you know what it is like to run to the door every one of those Seven hundred and twenty two times thinking maybe this time it's him who's at the door? Do you know that every time I stepped out of the house, I would think that maybe you came back and I missed you? I even got a camera installed so that I know exactly who is at the door so that I can be sure that I don't miss you when you do come calling. Searching every nook and cranny for you like a madwoman, to get one tiny clue as to where you are. Two years Jagerjaquez, two years I searched for you in every place I could think of. I waited for you for two long years, sleeping with the phone in my hand so that I don't miss a call. Running out at two thirty in the night because some random person called me saying that he thought he saw someone matching your description. Do you know what it is like to live like that? DO YOU?"

Grimmjow was stunned speechless, watching tears running down her face, as she proceeded to maul the bouquet in her hand and screamed.

"Do you think this bouquet of carnations and a simple sorry on your part is enough? No Jagerjaquez. I spent two years of my life on the brink of madness. Two years. Give me those two years back and then maybe I'll be willing to listen to whatever sorry excuse you have for your behaviour."

"Nel, I...I can't even imagine what it must have been like. My behaviour was inexcusable. All I can say is, I was sixteen and I made a grave mistake. I mistook your words Nel." He whispered, unable to meet her eyes.

"SO WAS I DAMNIT!" she screamed as she threw the mutilated bouquet at him "It's alright for you to just poof away from my life because you were sixteen, but it's not alright for me to have one single freak out at the same age when I ask you to get out? I was going through a tough time Jagerjaquez and I snapped. But I sure as hell didn't deserve to be punished so brutally for that. Look, when I took the offer to work as a self defence trainer at a local dojo two months ago, I sure as hell didn't expect to run into you in this town. But I am glad I did. I needed to get all this out of my system. I feel much better now. Now if you will please excuse me. I have a class to teach. Oh and I would thank you to never show your face again. Goodbye."

She turned around and walked away, leaving a despondent Grimmjow picking up the few flowers that had remained whole through her vicious attack on them.

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><p><span>Present<span>

Ulquiorra and Orihime walked in through the gate. Orihime was still chuckling, but the frequency of her chuckles had reduced considerably. Unfortunately for them, the first person they ran into was Szayel.

"Aah Miss Inoue, Ulquiorra. Good to see you both."

"Szayel." Ulquiorra said, firmly pushing away the picture his mind was presenting him.

"Orihime. I find Miss Inoue to be too formal." She said smiling. Ulquiorra could see the mirth in her eyes but she was doing a better job of controlling her laughter than he had expected.

"It would take me some time to call you that Miss...Orihime...but I will try nonetheless."

"Good. So how's Barragan?" She asked, her expression much more sombre.

"Oh he's much better. The man is stronger than a horse. We are waiting to see if he develops any signs of infection. If in the next twelve hours he doesn't then he'll be discharged by tomorrow evening."

"That's wonderful news." She said, genuinely happy. "Can we go to the hospital again?"

"Miss Ino...Orihime," Szayel said, "It's my professional opinion that he would be here tomorrow evening. You can meet him tomorrow. Today, he's getting a visit from his family. I would suggest he gets some time alone with them."

"Oh of course. Do convey my regards to him and wish him a speedy recovery on my behalf."

"Will do. Good day to both of you." Szayel said bowing slightly.

Orihime watched him leave with a smile.

"It'll be wonderful when Barragan gets back."


	19. An eventful night

So here is an extremely important chapter. For some reason, I spent a sleepless night yesterday, tossing and turning constantly. Beauty sleep came to me at 6:30am and my alarm is set at 7:00 am, so you know how much sleep I got. So somewhere in the night, the later part of the chapter dawned on me. The more I ran the idea through my head, the more I liked it. Ofcourse since I didn't get ANY sleep last night, I just had to put my main characters through a sleepless night too. But at least I made thier night eventful, which is the last thing my night was. Frustrating is the word to describe mine. Anyhow, I am sure Ulquiorra and Orihime's eventful night intrigues you more than my frustrated and sleep deprived ramblings. So without further ado, I present Chapter 18. R&R.

PS: I wrote this chapter in zombie mode, so please feel free to tell me if I made any grammatical/spelling or any other errors.

PPS: I wrote my disclaimer on the first chapter, not gonna repeat it.

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><p><strong>Chapter 18- An eventful night<strong>

That night, when they went to sleep, they had no idea just how eventful the night was going to turn out to be. Returning from school they played with Haruki for a while, had their dinner, finished their school work and spoke about a lot of things, mainly Barragan's return before going to sleep. Orihime had stolen a quick hug before she retired to bed, resulting in both parties looking forward to a peaceful sleep in the night. That was however not to be.

Ulquiorra woke up feeling thirsty. The digital clock by Orihime's bed told him it was 2:15am. He quickly drank some water from the jug on the table and was about to go back to his couch-bed when by the night lamp's light he realised something was wrong. Orihime was thrashing on her bed, her mouth open in a soundless scream. He quickly went over to her bed and sat next to her. He realized she was asleep and was having a particularly scary nightmare.

"Hime, wake up." he tapped her arm gently but to no effect. She continued her thrashing.

"You are having a nightmare, wake up." he said a little more firmly, this time shaking her by her shoulders. She was still locked in her dream, scared witless.

"HIME!" he said louder, tapping her cheek.

When even that didn't work, he walked over to the bathroom and got a handful of water to sprinkle on her face. That worked. She woke up screaming Haruki's name. Unaware of what she was doing, she hugged Ulquiorra, her finger nails digging into his back through the fabric of his T-shirt. He leaned back on the headboard taking care that her hands don't get squashed, extended his legs in front of him and held her to himself.

"Help," she whispered frantically "Haruki! he..he'll get her, help, help...Ulquiorra.."

"Shhh," he said gently patting her head, "No one's getting Haruki. You just had a bad dream. She's fine, don't worry."

"Bad dream?" She asked, looking very lost and vulnerable.

"Yes, just a nightmare. Haruki is fine."

"Fine...Haruki is fine." She muttered to herself, visibly calming down. She cuddled closer to Ulquiorra who held her in a warm hug.

She stayed in his arms for a while, holding him tightly. He could feel her body's heat through the material of her pajama set. Mingled with her natural scent of rain and the faint fruity smell of her shampoo wafting from her hair, it had started to arouse him slightly. It did not help that the current posture was enabling him to feel the curves of her body against his. He had to get away from her before he did something he should not. He gently tried to push her away, but she wouldn't budge. Instead she did exactly what he didn't want her to do. She raised her head, arched her back slightly pushing herself a little more against him and kissed him on his lips.

_No!_ he screamed mentally as he felt himself respond. He pulled her closer as he deepened the kiss, his tongue exploring her mouth. He felt her shift slightly, as if to find more comfortable position for herself. He vaguely realised she was on his lap now and on some level he knew he had to stop but his body seemed to have a mind of it's own.

She felt his hand slip slightly under her flannel shirt and rest on the bare skin of her waist, sending jolts of electricity through her. She gave herself completely to the kiss, liking the way his faint stubble felt on her skin. Much too soon for her, he pulled back but she wasn't going to allow him to go. Before he could say anything, she dipped her head to the base of his collar bones and kissed him there. He inhaled sharply, the hand at her waist slowly travelling upwards. She shivered slightly at his touch, burying her face on the base of his neck. She could feel his desire against her thigh and knew they were treading on dangerous waters but her own desire took over. She imitated his action, slipping her hand inside his shirt as she listened to his labored breathing. As if possessed by some power she didn't know, she tugged his shirt upward and before either was aware, he was shirtless. She left a trail of kisses on his bare torso, feeling him shiver at her touch. Suddenly he held her shoulders.

"Hime stop!" he said shakily, "we shouldn't be doing this."

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak. She hadn't intended things to go this far. She slid out of his lap.

"I am sorry." she said, not looking at him "I didn't mean to go this far."

He leaned his head against the headboard, covering his face with his hands, breathing heavily.

"I should be the one apologizing. I should have stopped."

They sat quietly, each leaning on the headboard, each lost in their own thoughts.

"Ulquiorra?"

"Hmm."

"What are we doing?"

"Don't you get it yet?"

"Get what?"

"We are attracted to each other. We like each other. It's not unheard of."

She froze, her eyes looking at something that was clearly terrifying her.

"No, that cannot happen." She said, her voice quivering.

He frowned and put an arm around her hunched body, "What cannot happen?"

"You cannot like me. No!"

"Why don't you leave that choice on me?"

"How can you?" She asked, staring at him wide eyed, "Knowing what you know."

"All I know is that I really like you. Nothing else matters."

"Oh but it does," She said in a hoarse whisper, "you don't know a lot of things. But once you do, you'll hate me. I know you will."

"I can never hate you."

"Hate, pity, sympathy...I don't want any of them from you."

"Hime, I know you are being abused and I don't pity you for that. Nor do I hate you, or sympathize with you for that."

"Even if I tell you that I am powerless to stop it?" she held his other hand in a tight grip, not meeting his eyes.

"Most abuse victims are powerless against their abusers. It's not your fault."

"Even if...Even if I tell you I am being raped?"

He froze.

"Day after day after day?"

He didn't reply.

"I cannot do anything to stop him. Every time he touches me, I freeze. I can't do anything. I learned martial arts so that I could defend myself, but it's useless."

She felt him shiver, unable to speak.

"He says because I want it and that's why I don't stop him." tears were flowing ceaselessly out of her eyes, "Trust me Ulquiorra, I don't. I hate it when he touches me. I don't..."

"Hime, look at me" he said, having found his voice, he cupped her face in his hands, "No woman wants to be raped. You are no exception."

"But he says..."

"HE IS A SICK MAN!" He thundered. "You are his daughter and he's supposed to be your guardian. How can he.." he couldn't continue.

She crumpled in his arms, crying. He let her cry for a while, holding her close to him.

"How long has this being going on?"

"T..T..Ten years."

One of his hands flew to his forehead as he sighed, his eyes closed a deep frown on his face.

"Good God! You must have been...so young.."

"I was six." She said, sobbing.

He pulled her closer to himself, sighing.

"You know, he hurts me so much." She continued, crying. Now that she had started speaking, she couldn't bring herself to stop.

"He beats me, punches me, kicks me, bites me so hard that I bleed. It hurts so much. I beg him to stop, but he just..." Her head was on his shoulder, her eyes closed.

He ran his fingers through her hair. Everything made so much sense now. Her cutting herself, trying to commit suicide, her protectiveness of Haruki, her flinches at physical contact.

"Does anyone else know?" He asked.

"You are only the second one. My Ma was the first one. She walked in on..." she couldn't continue.

"Was that the day when she..."

She nodded, not able to speak.

Pure, unadulterated anger pulsated through his body and he shivered involuntarily.

"Please don't hate me, Ulquiorra." her voice choking on tears.

"Hate you?" Ulquiorra asked, "No Hime, I don't hate you."

"Then why are you shivering?"

"I am angry, very angry." his voice barely betraying the intense anger in him.

She felt an intense amount of relief surge through her as she realised that the anger wasn't directed at her. Nor did he hate her.

"Ul-Ul-Ulquiorra," She said "please make it stop. I cannot take it any more."

"Just nod. Just give me one signal and I will kill that man." He said icily, leaving no doubt in her mind that he meant every word of it.

"NO!" She said, panic rising within her, "If you kill that man, the remaining Espadas, Gin and Tosen would leave no stones unturned to have you arrested."

"I don't care!" he said vehemently, "I am willing to spend all my life behind bars if that ensures that he cannot lay a finger on you again."

For the first time she saw a lot of emotions on his face, anger being one of the primary ones. But it was the other dominant emotion on his face that caught her eyes.

"You..." she said haltingly. "You love me so much?"

He looked taken aback for a moment and then said, "No. More than that. Much more."

She sighed and rested her head on his shoulder, "Promise me you won't kill him."

"I am sorry, I cannot promise that. Because I am going to beat the crap out of Aizen Souske and if he dies in the process, I cannot help it."

"No!" she said pleadingly, pulling back to look at his face "Don't you understand? This has taken everything away from me. My mother, my childhood, my innocence, my chance at a normal life- everything. If you kill him and get arrested for that, it would be the ultimate victory for him. He would have taken from me the man I love and I cannot allow that. No. If that means a few more years of being raped, then so be it."

"SHUT UP!" He roared as he pulled her to himself. "How could you say that? How could you say that you love me and then say that it's OK being raped again, that too all in the same breath? How could you?"

Something in his voice made her look up and she was shocked to find tears flowing down his eyes.

"I am so sorry, Ulquiorra." She said wiping his tears, "I didn't mean to hurt you."

He held her wrists in his hands and brought them to his lips, placing gentle kisses on the faint scars.

"You have fought long and hard, Hime. Very long. It's my turn now. I don't know yet what I am going to do, but I am not going to let him touch you again, if that's the last thing I do."

She leaned forward and hugged him, crying.

"Why didn't you go away after your mother's death?" He asked a little while later, when both of them had calmed down considerably.

Snuggling closer to him she said, "Haruki. If I move away, he'll descend on Haruki. It's a fate no one should have to endure, much less an innocent child."

"She is his own daughter." He said, unable to process how could a father want to rape his own daughter.

"It won't stop him. I know it won't. Once a pedophile, always a pedophile."

He pulled her closer and placed a kiss on her forehead.

"You should go to sleep now. We still have three days before he comes back, we'll figure something out."

"Will you sleep next to me, please?" She implored.

He nodded and lied down. As she settled on the crook of his arms, holding him tightly, he realized he was still shirtless. His mind went back to the reason why he had lost his shirt. Now, that kiss seemed like something from another life. So much had transpired between then and now. As he brushed his lips lightly on hers, wishing her good night, he felt he relax in his arms like never before.

"I love you." He heard her whisper.

"I love you too." He replied, patting her head gently.


	20. The next day 2

There isn't much to say about this chapter. It just follows the events of the next day to a certain point. It's a sort of breather after the last heavy duty chapter. It also focuses on the reactions of our protagonists to the events of the last chapter. Apologies for the uninspired title of the chapter, but I couldn't think of anything else.

On a related note, this story now has hundred plus reviews. I can now finally believe it :-D (took me QUITE some time to believe it, really.) Thank you everyone, you all are the reason I have my motivation. I send warm hugs to you all and wish you all a very lovely, happy and beautiful day.

R&R.

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><p><strong>Chapter 19- The next day (2)<strong>

When Orihime woke up, the first thing she realised was that she was extremely content. The next thing she realised was that she was sleeping on someone's arm, the other one draped over her and a body was pressed against her back. For a brief moment she thought it was Aizen but she immediately knew that couldn't be, he would leave her as soon as he had done what he wanted to do and he would never hold her so gently. It was then that she remembered the events of last night. Smiling she snuggled closer to the man hugging her, who responded by tightening his hug.

"Good morning." He whispered in her ears.

"Good morning." she replied and turned around to bury her face into his chest.

"Slept well?"

"Better than ever. You?"

He nodded.

"You know what," she said against his chest, "I like you shirtless."

She felt his body shake in a small chuckle.

"Thank you." He buried his face in her hair and said, "I love this shampoo of yours, use it regularly."

"I knew it!"

He hummed and pulled her closer, running his fingers through her hair. She closed her eyes and purred like a cat. She started showing every sign of falling back to sleep. He kissed her forehead and said,

"Much as I am enjoying having you in my arms, we have to get up."

"Spoilsport!" she said and quickly gave a couple kisses at the base of his throat, enjoying the sharp intake of his breath.

She slid out of the bed laughing before he could react and ran into the bathroom. He watched her go with a small smile on his lips. Once she was in, he lay back on the bed, his brows furrowed.

He hadn't slept a wink last night, still reeling from the aftermath of the events. He wouldn't let Orihime know about it, but his mind wasn't at peace. He was experienced enough to recognize the feeling within him, although he had never felt it before, but he had seen it in the eyes of many, Nnoitra being the foremost in his mind. A feeling of bloodlust. Aizen Souske had forced his woman to cry tears of blood and he was going to make him pay for it. He would have to pay for every tear that Orihime had shed, every drop of blood that she had lost, every scream of hers, every nightmare of hers- he would have to pay the price for it.

An image had burned itself into his mind. An image that was torturing him. In his mind's eye he could see the terrified six year old Orihime, crouching in the corner of her room, shivering and her step father approaching her with his pants down. He clenched his fists as the image came back to haunt him. Last night he had wanted to hurl something, break a few windows and generally vent his intense anger but he didn't. Or rather he couldn't, because of the girl who was in his arms. She didn't deserve that display of anger, she deserved his gentleness and he was more than willing to give it to her. She had unconsciously calmed him down, helped him rein in his anger. As he watched her sleep with a peaceful smile on her face, he felt like his entire lifetime had condensed in that one moment. He spent a considerable time of the night simply looking at her face, his mind devoid of any thoughts. Later when he went back to analyzing his thoughts, he realized two things. One that his anger from before had now simmered to a cold fury and two that subconsciously he had formulated a plan. A plan that was a refined version of his original plan but one that might just work, but he would need help from at least one of the Espadas. He didn't even need to think twice who it would be. But he needed Orihime's support too. So he would have to run it by her before he spoke to Grimmjow.

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><p>Of all her friends, Tatsuki had known Orihime the longest. She had always known that her friend had a deep sadness hidden within her, a sadness she had never shared with anyone. Tatsuki had several times tried to ask her about it but Orihime had always brushed her away. Once, when she had forced her a lot, Orihime had confessed to having feelings for Ichigo and was sad that he didn't return them. Tatsuki had accepted the explanation simply because she had seen the grey eyed girl look at Ichigo longingly. All these years, Tatsuki had seen Orihime silently pine for their tall orange haired friend. But ever since Ulquiorra had come into the picture, everything changed. Her affections had shifted from Ichigo to the green eyed man within a matter of days and Tatsuki was very confused. She could still see the pain in her eyes, but they seemed to have reduced. However, watching her today, as she walked over to meet her and Rukia, she knew something had changed- significantly. Her face was glowing, her eyes held a strange sparkle and she couldn't stop smiling. Tatsuki couldn't detect a trace of pain in her. Looking at her, she grudgingly accepted that probably Ulquiorra was the best thing that had happened to her friend. As the two girls watched, Ulquiorra bent down to whisper something in her ear which made her smile wider and nod.<p>

"Whoa! Orihime!" Rukia said with a smile, "You are glowing!"

_So someone else noticed it as well?_ Tatsuki thought.

"Am I?" Orihime replied laughing.

"Yes, so bright that I would need sunglasses."

The three girls laughed in unison.

"Let's go." Orihime said, smiling broadly.

Rukia and Tatsuki weren't the only ones who noticed the difference Orihime.

"Inoue!" Ichigo called out almost as soon as the four of them entered the classroom. "What happened to you?"

"What do you mean?" Orihime asked grinning widely.

Ulquiorra didn't miss her lack of stammer while talking to Ichigo Kurosaki.

"You are looking...beautiful." Ichigo said, as if noticing her for the first time.

A faint flush appeared on her face as she laughed, "I am flattered, thank you."

He let Orihime pass, but grabbed Ulquiorra by his arm none to gently.

"Do you know what happened?" Ichigo couldn't keep the hostility from his voice.

The green eyed man stared at the orange haired boy and sighed.

"You amuse me, Kurosaki."

"What?"

"She's happy. Does that bother you?"

"What? No, it doesn't bother me...but.."

"This is precisely why you amuse me."

"What the fuck are you going on about?"

"You get hostile when she's happy, you are hostile when she's not. You don't know what you want for yourself, but you try and determine what's good for her and what's not. Isn't that amusing?"

Ulquiorra smirked, pried his arm from Ichigo's grasp and walked away.

"Damn! I hate that guy!" Ichigo muttered.

"Relax Ichigo," Tatsuki said, "I don't think he is as bad as we think he is."

"I don't know Tatsuki," Ichigo said in an uncharacteristically low voice, "but he gives me bad vibes. He's... Something about him is not right."

"I know what you mean Ichigo. I get that feeling too. But I don't think he means any harm to Orihime."

"He doesn't." A new voice answered from behind them.

"Chad!" Ichigo and Tatsuki chorused.

"What do you mean Chad?" Tatsuki asked.

"Just that he doesn't mean her any harm."

"How can you be so sure?" Ichigo countered.

"I know people." was all that Sado said in response.

Through out the day Orihime kept stealing glances at Ulquiorra. After what was probably the fifteenth time, he turned at her with a small smile and raised his eyebrows at her. A faint blush covered her face as she turned around grinning. She still couldn't believe that she had been able to muster enough courage to be able to tell the truth to Ulquiorra when only on Sunday she had told him that she was not prepared to tell him the truth. Coming to think of it, she really hadn't planned on telling him anything, it had just slipped out. Once her confession had started, she couldn't make herself stop. Not only had she told him everything about herself, she had even confessed her love for him. A love that he was returning in equal measure. Her happiness knew no bounds, but along with it came a fear. A fear of losing him. All her life she had lost the people that meant something to her. Now, sitting beside her, was the man who meant the world to her. The man who had taught her to trust again. The man who had taught her to love. The man because of whom she was alive and breathing. The one who was healing her wounds and giving her her smile back. In short, he was the man who had given birth to her the second time in her life. If she were to loose this man, she didn't think she would be able to live through it.

As if reading her thoughts, he threaded his fingers through hers, calming her down instantly.

Later that day, during lunch, Rukia pulled her aside. To Orihime's surprise, Ulquiorra didn't follow her. She took her to where Tatsuki was already waiting.

"OK, out with it. What happened?" Rukia asked breathlessly.

"About what?"

"Oh please! Something happened yesterday and it happened after school, so tell us what happened." Tatsuki insisted.

"I...I..really don't know what you mean, Tatsuki." She replied, but was unable to stop the blush coming on her face.

"Don't you?" Rukia said grinning, "Then why are you blushing so deep?"

Orihime couldn't come up with a satisfactory answer but suddenly Rukia's eyes grew wide as saucers.

"You.." she said stammering "You..don't..don't tell me.."

"What?" Orihime asked, confused.

"You..and Ulquiorra...you guys...did you..you know..do it?" Rukia asked haltingly.

"What?" Orihime started laughing, "No..no.." she wiped her tears of mirth "Nothing of the sort."

"Then just what has happened?" Tatsuki asked.

Orihime sighed, trying to figure out the best possible way of telling them everything without giving away anything.

"Well, I confessed my love to Ulquiorra and he told me that he loves me as well." She finally replied.

She spent the rest of the lunch break trying to fend off Rukia and Tatsuki both of whom wanted more and more details- how, when, where.

* * *

><p>"God!" Orihime exclaimed on her way to Las Noches, "Rukia and Tatsuki drove me nuts today. They wanted to know so many things!"<p>

"I saw."

"Be glad it wasn't you facing the inquisitorial squad."

"Hime, I needed to talk to you about something."

"Yes?"

The rest of the way, Ulquiorra filled her in on his plan.

"Now here is the thing," he said, "I need help from Grimmjow for this plan to work. For that I would have to tell him truth, but only if you are comfortable with it. If not, I'll try and think of something else."

She bit her lip thoughtfully, "I..I don't know. So much hinges on Aizen buying that story..."

"I don't have a better idea."

"Assuming he does buy the story...If I know him, he will go to Haruki."

"I thought so as well and this is where Grimmjow comes in."

"Yes. I know. But...but it's very difficult for me to tell Grimmjow anything.."

"I know." He said, placing a hand on her shoulder, "That's why I'll be the one telling him. If you want, I'll talk to him separately."

"No. You are doing this for me. I want to be there with you."

"You sure?"

She nodded, her face set.


	21. Three Espadas

This is a shortish chapter, but a very important one. Hime does something unexpected, but something that needs a lot of guts. I sincerely thank you all for the love and support you all have shown me all this while.

I don't have much to say for this chapter, I'll let the high emotions do the talking.

I am on a creative high and have started on another Ulquihime fanfic "I see you." Little horror, supernatural and of course romance. I take the opportunity to ask you all to take a peek at that one too. Link .net/s/7184863/1/I_see_you

Please read and review both. Thanks in advance.

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><p><strong>Chapter 20- Three Espadas<strong>

Almost as soon as the two entered Las Noches, Haruki came running to them with Nnoitra tagging along.

"Olihime!" the child screamed happily, "Ballagan is back."

"Is he?" Orihime said happily "That's wonderful news. Let's go meet him."

The four of them walked over to the Espada quarters where Barragan was currently housed. Every Espada with the exception of Starrk, Harribel and Grimmjow were currently with Barragan, welcoming him back.

Orihime waited for his comrades to finish their warm welcomes before she spoke.

"Welcome back Barragan." she said with a warm smile. "Haruki, won't you welcome him as well?"

"Welcome bak Ballagan." Haruki said with an uncharacteristic shyness.

"What happened to you?" Nnoitra asked perplexed.

"There are too many people around." Orihime said laughing. "She'll relax soon enough."

Sure enough, Haruki relaxed after a while and was busy chatting with Barragan who was trying to answer as many of her questions as he could, without exerting himself. After a little while, Szayel decided to softly interrupt Haruki.

"Miss Souske," He said gently, "I know you have a lot of things to ask Barragan, but you see, he is not well and needs to sleep. So can we let him go to sleep now? You can ask a few more questions tomorrow."

Haruki didn't look too pleased with it, but agreed nevertheless. As they were walking out of the Espada quarters, Grimmjow was walking in. Ulquiorra indicated that all of them walk on as he called out.

"Sexta."

"Emo King. What's up?"

"I need to talk to you about something very important. Come to the room after dinner."

Grimmjow frowned and nodded.

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><p>Orihime was pacing nervously in her room. Her heart was thudding so loudly, she thought everyone in Las Noches could hear it. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, a knock sounded on her door. She stopped, her face patted her back, telling her to calm down and opened the door. Orihime settled on the bed, clutching the pillow, scared of what was about to happen.<p>

"What's so urgent Emo King?"

"You might want to sit down for this."

"I really don't like your tone. Nor do I like how the chick is looking. What's the matter?"

"Sit down, really."

"Fine. Sitting down but you really are giving me the creeps. What's up?"

Once Grimmjow sat, Ulquiorra weighed his words carefully.

"Grimmjow, where do you draw a line?"

"On a paper?" Grimmjow said, clueless.

"No, no. That's not what I mean. I meant morally. What would be morally unacceptable to you?"

"Jeez, that's a tough one. I am absolutely against slavery, human trafficking, racism, honor killings to name a few. Why?"

"How about pedophilia?"

"What? That's disgusting. It goes without saying I am absolutely against child abuse of any kind. But seriously, why are we having this conversation?"

Orihime clutched her pillow tightly, bracing herself for Ulquiorra's next statement.

"Then how will you react if I tell you Aizen Souske is a pedophile?"

His statement was met with stunned silence on Grimmjow's part. The response came from a totally unexpected place. The door to the room flew open and Nnoitra stormed in, his face livid.

"Ulquiorra Schiffer!" Nnoitra screamed, "That's a fucking serious allegation."

"Have you ever known Ulquiorra to make tall claims Nnoitra? And what are you doing here anyway?"

"I overheard this piece of shit telling you to meet him after dinner. I was curious as hell."

"So you eavesdropped." Grimmjow stated.

"Good thing I did too. How else would I have known this man was building up such a big cock and bull story?"

"HE ISN'T LYING!" Orihime screamed. "You want proof Nnoitra Jiruga, I'll give it to you. All I have to do is strip. You'll find his bite marks all over me. Places where he's cut me. Places where he has hurt me so that I feed to his fantasies."

The three Espadas stood staring at her as she started to unbutton her shirt. Ulquiorra was the first to react.

"Stop!" Ulquiorra said and held her hands. "I believe you."

"I know you do. But I see doubt in Nnoitra's eyes. Grimmjow doesn't know what to believe." She freed her hands from his grasp and turned to face the two. "Do you really think I am fabricating it? I have been forced to be his sex toy for ten years. He took my virginity from me before I even knew what it meant. Believe me, I am not lying."

"What do you want from us?" Grimmjow asked finally.

"As of now, all I ask of you is to believe me." Orihime said.

"I believe you." Grimmjow said.

Nnoitra didn't reply. Wordlessly Orihime lifted up her shirt to show Nnoitra her back. It was covered with many scars in various stages of healing. The tall, lanky Espada walked up to her and pulled her shirt down. Ulquiorra moved to her and hugged her as she cried onto his shoulders.

"What do you want me to do?" Nnoitra said, not meeting her eyes.

"We have reasons to believe that he'll be going for Haruki next." Ulquiorra said.

"What?" both of them chorused.

"Nnoitra, where is Haruki now?" Orihime asked.

"She's with Aaroniero." He replied. "I asked him to take over my duties for about an hour."

"So we have about an hour to formulate a plan to stop him from going to Haruki?" Grimmjow said.

Nnoitra let out a string of abuses in multiple languages.

"Actually, I already have a rudimentary plan in my mind. It'll be all the more good if Nnoitra here is a part of it. We can pull it off flawlessly."

"Nnoitra, you really are in, aren't you?" Grimmjow asked

"Hell yes, Sexta. I'll turn a blind eye to a lot of shit but after having seen Miss Inoue's back here, I can't turn a blind eye to it. Especially if little Miss Souske is in danger of going through that. Fuck! I do not like assholes who hurt kids."

"Thank you Nnoitra, Grimmjow." Orihime said, haltingly.

The three men sat around the table as Ulquiorra filled them in on his plan, with Grimmjow and Nnoitra occasionally giving their inputs.

Orihime sat hunched on her bed, only partially listening to what the three of them were talking about. Her concentration was on what she had just done. For ten years she had kept quiet and borne the physical and sexual abuse from the man. For the first time, she had dared to open her mouth. She had had enough of bearing it with silence, she wanted to break free. She wanted to put a stop to her pain and protect her sister. Ulquiorra had come up with a plan which gave her a glimmer of hope and for that he needed Grimmjow's support. When Nnoitra had barged in, calling Ulquiorra a liar, something in her snapped. She hadn't borne ten years of pain for people to disbelieve her when she finally broke her silence. She didn't even know where she had gotten her strength from, but if Ulquiorra hadn't stopped her, she would have actually stripped, shown them what this man actually did to her. She had finally seen it in Nnoitra's eyes, he believed her. He was going to help.

"Sexta," Nnoitra asked seriously, "how long will it take to finish the wiring?"

"I have two days before he comes back, right? So I'll get it done in one and a half days. You think you can do your part?"

"Fuck yeah!"

The the Espadas nodded and started to leave. Nnoitra had almost reached to the door when he thought something and paused. He looked at Orihime and said,

"You know, I always thought, that when I meet an abuse victim, I'll support them. I won't victimize the victim. But today, I was on the verge of doing exactly that and I am fucking ashamed of myself."

Orihime nodded, knowing that it was his apology. Still unable to meet her eyes, Nnoitra walked away.

Grimmjow stood with his hands in his pockets, staring at the floor. Once Nnoitra left, he asked aloud,

"Can we really trust him?"

"I trust him. He's a hot headed and temperamental, but he's trustworthy." Ulquiorra said.

"Hmmm. Orihime, I..I really don't know what to tell you because nothing I say will really suffice. But trust me, I never doubted you. I just hope I can help Ulquiorra to put an end to your personal hell."

Orihime nodded fighting the tears that were spilling out.

"Take care of her." Grimmjow told Ulquiorra and walked away.

The Fourth Espada waited till the door was closed behind Grimmjow then walked up to her and hugged her tightly.

"Are you alright?" he asked gently.

"Yes. Surprisingly, I am very calm. I am willing to anything now, anything that will ensure a safe and happy future for Haruki and me. I just want this whole nightmare to end once and for all."

"If this plan works, it might just be the end of Aizen Souske."

"Ulquiorra, thank you for being my strength. I couldn't have done what I did if you weren't around."

"I'll be always around, for as long as you want me to be around."

"Forever?" She asked with moist eyes.

"If that's what you want." he replied.


	22. Nnoitra's turmoil

This chapter is like a filler with nothing significant taking place out here. I wasn't quite happy with the way the last chapter turned out. I felt it was a little rushed. So, some questions that may have come up in your mind in the last chapter, now I am trying to give an answer to them. Aizen will be back in the next chapter and the story itself has two maybe three more chapters to go excluding the epilogue. So brace yourselves for some action from the next chapter onward. For this chapter, have fun reading Nnoitra's confusion and Ulquiorra being his sounding board.

PS: Some of you may notice, Nnoitra doesn't cuss as much as he should, that's because I couldn't creatively put in his style of cursing. Blame it on me that Nnoitra speaks so clean. I have incredible difficulty trying to fit in cuss words, not sure why. Please help me with Nnoitra's dialogues (for both my fics).

Read and Review.

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><p><strong>Chapter 21-Nnoitra's turmoil<strong>

It was the crack of dawn. A spider was slowly spinning a web in the corner of the room, tirelessly going back and forth between one edge of the wall to the other, ensuring his web was strong. Ulquiorra lay on the bed following it's movement with his eyes. Beside him, Orihime lay quietly, also awake, seeing something else. Wordlessly she turned around and hugged him. He enveloped her in his arms, without taking his eyes off the spider.

"What's so fascinating about that spider?" She asked after a while.

"I was just watching it lay a careful trap for it's prey. Going over and over the details, ensuring that every part of the web is strong. As if it knows instinctively that one weak thread and the prey can escape."

"Why do I get the feeling that you are talking about more than just the spider web?"

"Because I am." He replied, "I can't help but think that our plan is no where nearly as foolproof."

"It's not." Orihime conceded sitting up, "We are putting too much at stake on two things. One that Aizen buys our story and two that he goes to Haruki."

"Exactly. That's one variable too many." He replied sitting up as well. "Plus there is the added factor of Nnoitra."

"Nnoitra? I thought you said he's trust worthy?"

"He is. Very trust worthy. But I have worked with him. He switches between two extreme planes and that's what is worrying me."

"What do you mean?" Orihime asked.

Turning around to face her, he said, "He's a little unpredictable at times. His reactions to things are either very spontaneous or very delayed. If it's spontaneous, he'll scream, shout and cuss out everything in sight but that will be the end of it. Once he's let his steam out, he'll be normal and do as is asked of him. He didn't react to your outburst, which tells me he'll have a delayed reaction and that's what's bothering me."

"Why? What is his delayed reaction like?"

"That's the thing, there is no fixed pattern to his delayed reaction. It could be a couple of hours later or a couple of days later. I would prefer if he shows a reaction by tomorrow. But any later than that.." he left the rest unsaid.

"Ulquiorra, what happens if this fails?"

He didn't give her an answer for a while. "There could be multiple outcomes, the least of which would be that I'll be out of a job."

She looked at him for a while, leaned forward and placed a small kiss on his lips.

"We'll be fine." She whispered.

He cupped her face with a hand and asked "Are you telling me or yourself?"

Leaning on his hand she said "I am not sure. All I know is I am putting everything that means something to me in line. I don't want to lose."

"Losing is not an option."

She snuggled close to him and hugged him.

"You and Haruki. The two of you mean everything to me. I...I'll die on the inside if something happens to either of you."

He didn't reply, instead he sealed her lips in a soft and gentle kiss.

* * *

><p>The day was mostly uneventful. The school went by as usual. On return, Ulquiorra gave his report to Gin and the two made their way to Orihime's room. However, they had a surprise waiting for them at the door. Grimmjow and Nnoitra stood outside the door. Orihime walked in, Grimmjow followed. As Ulquiorra meant to follow, Nnoitra grabbed Ulquiorra's arm and said,<p>

"A word with you, alone."

"Sure. One minute." He closed the room's door, "Tell me."

"I...I am having..."

"Second thoughts." Ulquiorra completed the sentence for him.

"Well no, not second thoughts..but..I don't know how the fuck to put it."

Ulquiorra closed his eyes and sighed. It was as he had predicted, Nnoitra was having a delayed reaction. He let the Fifth Espada take his own time. Nnoitra fidgeted uncomfortably for a while before he spoke up,

"It's not like I don't trust what Miss Inoue said, but..."

"But?"

"I...I can't wrap my mind around the fact that she blames Lord Aizen for it."

Ulquiorra felt a stab of annoyance at the Fifth Espada, but waited for him to continue.

"What I mean is, it could be some one else, couldn't it? Gin, Tosen, some other Espada..anyone."

"Yes, it could be." Ulquiorra replied.

"I hear a but in your sentence, Ulquiorra."

"I know it's not any of the other Espadas, but for your sake, let's do a process of elimination based on what we know about the Espadas, shall we?"

Nnoitra nodded.

"Hallibel is out by default."

"Agreed." Nnoitra said.

"Could it be you?"

"No."

"Do you think it could be me?" Ulquiorra asked.

"No."

"Why not?"

"You won't ever do something like that."

"So, could it be Grimmjow?"

Nnoitra thought for a while and said, "No. He won't do anything like that."

"So, which Espada do you think is capable of doing something like this?"

Ulquiorra could see Nnoitra think hard, mentally eliminating them one after another as he muttered to himself.

"Starrk..no. Szayel..no. Zommari...Yammy..Aaroniero..Barragan...I really don't see anyone doing something like that."

"So you think the Espada are out?"

"Yes." Nnoitra agreed.

"So Gin or Tosen?"

"Yes."

"I really don't know what Gin will or won't do." Ulquiorra admitted, "Do you?"

"No I don't."

"So Gin's under reasonable doubt. What about Tosen?"

"I have never seen Tosen show any damn interest in any female." Nnoitra replied.

"So what are you implying?"

"I can't be sure, but I don't think it's him."

"Alright. So now, it could either be Aizen or Gin and there is a chance that it could be Tosen."

"How about some other servant?" Nnoitra countered.

Ulquiorra tried to ignore the irritation rising in him, "Yes, it could be but..."

"Do you honestly think a servant could get away with something like that?" Grimmjow cut in suddenly, "Sorry, I had to listen in to the conversation, I had a feeling something like this would happen. Now, let's imagine the scenario. A young girl goes to her uncle complaining that a certain servant has tried to do something with her, what do you think the uncle's reaction will be?"

Both the Espadas waited for the Fifth Espada's answer.

"He would fire the servant I suppose." Nnoitra said slowly.

"A man like Aizen Souske will be content with just firing his servant?" Grimmjow asked.

"How has it been so easy for you to accept her story without a question, Sexta?" Nnoitra asked.

"Valid question." Grimmjow said, "You see lanky, I have never respected, liked or trusted Aizen. For me he is nothing more than an employer. I don't approve of some things that he does, but so far I have turned a blind eye to all of that. If there is someone in Las Noches whom I trust, it's him." He said hooking his thumb at Ulquiorra, "I know he won't say something like this without proper evidence. My gut feeling says that he is telling the truth so I am going to go with him. It's time for you to decide."

Nnoitra frowned, still unsure.

"Alright," Ulquiorra sighed, "how about this? Let's go along with the plan. If it turns out that Aizen is innocent or this plan doesn't work, I will take the entire blame on me. You won't get the brunt of his anger."

"But if he does turn out to be the culprit," Grimmjow added, "you will help us to bring him down, right?"

"Fuck yeah." Nnoitra said. "Like I said, I don't like it when someone strong abuses the weak. I won't stand by quietly for that. If he indeed does try to harm the little Miss, I won't leave him."

Standing behind the door, Orihime quietly heard the conversation between the three Espadas. She sighed and walked away from the door.


	23. Aizen returns

Apologies for the delayed update, sometimes things happen in life. My comp was having some issues and I couldn't update anything out here. So I had the chapters from both the fics ready, waiting to uploaded.

This chapter has a disturbing scene, a scene of Ulquihime fluff and a bit of Aizen's arrogance. So the first part of the chapter, which is in italics, might be a little disturbing so if you cannot stomach it, please skip. Next chapter on I start the climax of the story.

As always, read and review. Thanks in advance.

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><p><strong>Chapter 22- Aizen returns<strong>

_It was her sixteenth birthday. Her friends had organized a party for her and she was getting ready to leave. She had put on the final touches of her light make up and was about to leave when the door to her room was opened and hr step father stood there with a predatory look in his eyes._

"_No!" She said, feeling fear and anger rise up within her, "Not today."_

"_Why not?" He asked, stepping in her room and closing the door behind him._

"_Please. My friends are waiting for me. Let me go." She said, backing up further._

"_Oh don't worry princess, I'll be quick, very quick." He said with a grin._

"_No!" She said, knowing her resistance was futile._

_The man moved with a surprising agility and pinned her against the wall. She fought the bile rising in her as she felt his body on her. She felt tears swell into her eyes as he grabbed and tore the dress she was wearing, a dress that was a present from Rukia, Tatsuki and Ishida, who'd sewn it himself. She felt him pick her up and dump her on her own bed, but her eyes were fixed on the mutilated dress that her friends had spent hours planning and stitching for her. She felt something sharp pressing against her ribs and cutting her skin, she knew he loved to see blood on her, it apparently turned him on but she didn't feel the pain. The pain of the beautiful white and blue dress that now lay mutilated was much deeper. To her it symbolized what the man had done all her life to everything that she held dear- destroy. She felt him punch her stomach, making her gasp._

"_I have told you to respond when I play with your body. Squirm, wither, moan, show me the pleasure."_

_She gave a small false moan but that seemed to satisfy him as he continued his game, squeezing blood out of her wound and applying it all over her body. Her eyes were still fixated on her dress as she visualized Ishida sitting late in the night, sewing in the beads that had detailed the bodice of the dress. After Aizen left, she got up from her bed unsteadily, picked up the torn dress, hugged it to herself and cried._

"_I am so sorry Ishida, Rukia, Tatsuki, I ruined your present." She whispered. She hadn't been able to go to the party that day._

* * *

><p>For some reason, she had been thinking about that particular day all through the night, as she lay in Ulquiorra's arms. She had never quite gotten over the regret of being unable to stop Aizen from destroying a beautiful present from her dear friends. She couldn't shake the fear that this time too she would be unable to defend a priceless gift from another dear person. Aizen was returning next morning and if things didn't go as planned, she wouldn't be able to defend the happiness that Ulquiorra had given her. She didn't think she would ever be able to forgive herself if she lost the precious gift her lover had given her.<p>

"Stop worrying, Hime." Ulqiuorra whispered gently into her ear.

She turned around to face him, "He'll be here tomorrow."

"Which is all the more reason for you to relax right now. You cannot work yourself up."

"I am scared." She said, hating how fragile her voice sounded.

"It's natural. I'd be lying if I said I am not nervous myself."

She scooted closer to him, as if trying to hide her small frame within his larger one. He wrapped his arms tightly around her, placing a kiss on her head.

"I wish none of this had ever happened." Orihime said, "But then, I would have never met you if all that hadn't happened."

"No point thinking about what could have happened. Concentrate on trying to get a good night's rest. Tomorrow could be a big day."

"Ulquiorra, can I ask something?"

"Hmm."

"Why did you tell Nnoitra that if Aizen turns out to be innocent, you'll take the whole thing on yourself?"

"You were listening in on the conversation." He stated making her lie on her back as he propped his head on his hand looking at her, "Well, two reasons really. The thing is, I know Aizen isn't innocent, so that scenario will not occur. Also, to gain Nnoitra's trust. He's not really important to the plan but he knows enough to be able to jeopardize things. If we didn't include him in the planning or I didn't ensure his safety, he might go and tell Aizen. I don't need to tell you how counter productive that would be."

"I see." She said.

"Can I ask you something?"

"You don't need permission." She said smiling.

"Did the conversation hurt you? Did you think we don't trust you?"

She sighed, knowing that this would be tough to explain.

"Well, you are partly right. I have complete faith in you. I knew you trust what I say. I see it in your eyes. Grimmjow...well he's made it very clear from the start that he's in it for you. While we are friendly, we really are not that close, so for him to trust me so easily will be a little difficult. But he didn't question me. He trusts you and that's more than enough for me. Nnoitra...I really don't know how to feel about him. I have hardly spoken to him before this, so him trusting his employer more than me is understandable on some level. But if I say that his questions did not hurt me, I would be lying. It's like this, I spent ten horrible years because of that man, so when someone questions the authenticity of it, it hurts."

He nodded. He gently ran his fingers through her hair and said "On an unrelated note, do you know you smell like the first rain?"

She laughed, her eyes sparkling. He could see her relax visibly as she nuzzled closer to him.

"You know, the day Barragan was shot, Grimmjow was telling me that you all have had such experiences. He said you have been at the receiving end of some pretty nasty stuff. What kind of things have you seen? Have you been shot?"

"Don't tell me you didn't notice the wound on my waist." He said sounding marginally surprised.

"Nope." She said flatly, "I was too busy drooling over you."

For the first time since she had known him, she saw him laugh. He bent down slightly, placed a small kiss on her lips and said,

"I have a noticeable scar on my waist. I got it when I was seventeen. I was stabbed, twice, in the same place."

She winced, "That must have hurt."

"Yes. I was out of action for a while but thankfully it didn't damage any of my internal organs so I could recover from it."

"Any bullet wounds?"

"A couple but why this sudden curiosity?"

"I want to know everything about you."

The corners of his lips moved slightly in what she recognized as a smile as he said, "Do you want to know about the time I scraped my shin while climbing a tree when I was four?"

She grinned and said "That too."

"Fine, then in return you'll have to tell me something."

"What is it that you don't know about me?"

"What will it take for you to fall asleep right now?"

She laughed and punched him lightly.

"I'll regale you with the stories of my long and boring life in such excruciating detail that you'll beg me to stop. But that'll be some other time, for now, you need to sleep. It's almost two. You have school tomorrow and I for one don't see Professor Urahara enjoying seeing someone sleep in his class."

She giggled and said "I'll be looking forward to that. I cannot believe you are physically capable of speaking for that long."

"You'll be surprised." He said settling down next to her, pulling her into his arms.

"Goodnight, Ulquiorra."

"Goodnight, Hime."

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><p>Gin was giving Aizen a complete update as the Lord and Master of Las Noches sat back and sipped on his tea. Once the update was over, he asked Gin to keep all the papers on his desk and leave him alone. The ever smiling man obliged, bowing slightly. He started reading a report lying in front of him but when he read the same line the fourth time without taking in a word, he gave it up as a bad job. His mind was elsewhere. His mind was on his personal toy, the beautiful Orihime Inoue. He had gone for almost nine days without her, something that had never happened before. She was his personal addiction. He had to have her twice a week at least, sometimes even more. But ever since he had assigned that Espada as her spy, he had had to practice a certain restraint. Ulquiorra was very intelligent and if he wasn't discreet, the Espada might find out about his pleasures. Something he really didn't want to. If the Espada figured it out, he might have to fire him or kill him and he really didn't want to lose the man who was arguably his best employee. Yes, Starrk could give him a tough competition but Aizen was confident that was only because of his experience, a couple of years more and Ulquiorra would be giving Starrk a run for his money.<p>

He really hadn't wanted to assign Ulquorra to the job, but he didn't have much of a choice. He had to keep the top Espada to himself, so Starrk was out of choice. Barragan, the second was given to Haruki. His choice was between Hallibel, Ulquiorra, Nnoitra and Grimmjow. Anyone below Grimmjow wasn't competent enough to handle the dual role of a bodyguard and a spy. Szayel was, but Szayel already had his hands more than full so he was out of question. Hallibel couldn't be assigned to Orihime, women were too kindred spirits and Hallibel might have ended up taking Orihime under her wing as a younger sister and that would have been disastrous. He absolutely wouldn't dream of putting someone like Nnoita in the role. Orihime was too beautiful and would be a temptation the Fifth Espada would not be able to resist. Grimmjow on the other hand, might be a temptation for Orihime, young, handsome, full of vitality and placing Grimmjow as her guard would be like placing fuel and fire together. They would combust immediately. The fourth Espada on the other hand was perfect. Yes, he was young and handsome, but he was way too sombre and stoic for Orihime to warm up to him. And as for Uquiorra, he wasn't a romantic. There was as much chance of him becoming attracted to her as it was of snowing in hell. Also there was the added bonus of him looking close to her age and therefore could go to school without arousing suspicion. All in all, Aizen was very pleased with himself. And now that he was back, all he had to do was wait for Orihime to come back from school and give him his welcoming present. He would take his time with her today, he had to. He was starving for her.

For a man who prided himself on his meticulous planning, Aizen hadn't realized that he had made a serious mis-calculation that would be the source of his downfall. He hadn't counted on Ulquiorra and Orihime falling in love with each other.


	24. The Plan begins

So here is what is possibly the penultimate chapter of the story, If I could fly... I say 'possibly' because I have a lot of stuff to cover in what happens in the next chapter, so I am in half mind to break it into two- but lets see how things go. Either way, climax has begun. At the most there will be two more chapters and an epilogue. But now that the story is almost over, I am toying with an idea that I sounded out on DA and will do so here too. There are some scenes that are in my mind that pertain to the story, but I could never include it within the story. Some of them are within the time frame of the story, some after. So here's what I am thinking, I will make a collection of one-shots, after the story is done. They'll be a total of 6 may be 7 one shots that add on to the story without effecting it in anyway. I need your inputs on two things.

1) Should I write those one shots?

2) Assuming I do so, please suggest some title for the collection.

Please pour in your inputs as a part of your review. And with that, I end my chatter and let you get on with the story.

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><p><strong>Chapter 23- The Plan begins<strong>

When Ulquiorra predicted that the day was going to be long, he had no idea exactly how prophetic his words were going to turn out. The day started out as usual, with the two of them walking to the school and worried about what would happen when they return to Las Noches, unaware of what awaited them at the school itself. As they walked into the class room, Ulquiorra's instinct made him look at Shinji Hirako. The hostility he felt from the blond was almost tangible. The Espada frowned but decided it could wait. He had more important things to be worried about than some misplaced hostility from a high school student. Mentally shrugging off the blonde, the black haired man took his seat.

At lunch, as soon as the Professor stepped out of the classroom, Shinji walked over to Ulquiorra.

"So," Shinji said in a gleeful voice, "you come from Hueco Mundo, huh?"

Nonplussed, Ulquiorra looked at him, not offering an answer.

"So, how did you meet Orihime Inoue?"

Orihime had spotted her classmate come over to Ulquiorra and was feeling irritated. The two of them were already under a lot of stress and the last thing they wanted was some added drama from her stalker. Also was the fact that he was already attracting a lot of attention from people who probably wanted to see round two of Ulquiorra vs Shinji. She clicked her tongue and walked over to the two, with the intention of putting a stop to whatever scene that Shinji wanted to create.

"Shinji," She said brusquely, "It really is none of your business."

"Oh but it is, _Miss Inoue_." He said sarcastically, "A little birdie told me something, I need to find out if it is true or not."

Ulquiorra sighed, his eyes closed but didn't honor Shinji with a reply. Something told him that this wasn't as insignificant as he originally thought.

"So Schiffer, you didn't tell me how did you meet Orihime Inoue?"

"He helped me out with a problem some years ago." Orihime replied, letting her irritation show abundantly.

"Oh is it?" He said with a smile, but the expression looked more like a snarl. "I wonder what kind of 'problem'" he used his fingers to quote the word, "you were in that would need help from Ulquiorra Schiffer, or should I say, the Fourth Espada?"

A confused murmur ran through the crowd, Orihime looked as though someone had slapped her. Ulquiorra however, smirked slightly.

"What the hell are you on about, Hirako?" Ichigo asked.

"Oh it's extremely funny Kurosaki," Shinji said, grinning ear to ear, "remember you were worried that this guy isn't what he seems, that's because he isn't."

Ulquiorra shoved his hands in his pockets and continued to look at Shinji, the corners of his lips upturned in a barely discernible smile .

"And exactly what is he?" Renji asked.

"You see, he is a mercenary." Shinji said dramatically.

"You are kidding me!" Rukia said looking like Shinji had just told her a joke that wasn't as funny as Shinji intended it to be.

"What do you have to say for yourself Shiffer?"

"Why should I say anything?" Ulquiorra said, his eyes still amused.

Not expecting that reply, Shinji blinked a couple of times, "Won't you ask me how I came to know about it?"

"You bribed a guard at Las Noches and got some information on me. No brainer, really."

"So you are not denying anything he says?" Ishida asked.

"No."

"What would a mercenary be doing with Inoue?" Ichigo asked, his eyes flitting between a calm Ulquiorra and a pale Orihime.

"Why don't you answer that bit, Hirako?" Ulquiorra said, his amusement still apparent.

Shinji looked uncomfortable, and fiddled, "I was..sort of hoping Schiffer would answer that."

Ulquiorra tsked, "I am disappointed in you Hirako. I would do a complete research when I am confronting someone with truth."

"So, why don't you answer it?" Ichigo turned to stare at the Espada, annoyed by the man's cockiness.

"Why should I? I am not answerable to any of you."

Ichigo's anger bubbled over as he took a threatening step towards him but a hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Think before you act, Ichigo." Sado said quietly.

Orihime had recovered enough to start speaking, "Well, you have all heard what you were here to hear. Now if you would excuse the two of us."

Saying so she simply picked up her bag and walked out, followed by Ulquiorra. She stormed out of the school and was looking extremely disturbed as she walked on. It took her some time to realize that all through the scene, Tatsuki hadn't spoken a word. After the two of them walked silently for a while, Orihime abruptly entered a cafe and sat down at a booth. As she expected, Ulquiorra took the seat opposite her.

"Why are you so disturbed?" He asked.

"This is going to give rise to some very uncomfortable questions that I wouldn't be able to give an answer to."

"Why should you give the answers?"

"What do you mean?" She was confused.

"What have your friends done for you to deserve an answer?"

She replied with a not so marginal amount of irritation "What could have they possibly done?"

"How about asking the right questions?" To his surprise, Ulquiorra realized he was annoyed.

"Just because they didn't know the truth about me doesn't make them bad friends." Her temper was rising fast.

"Oh really?" He snapped, somehow finding it very easy to snap at her, "And what have they done to be called good friends?"

"Little things matter too, but you don't care, do you? You are determined to look at them in the worst possible light."

"Worst possible light? You are sorely mistaken."

"Really? Then please enlighten me." Orihime was seething.

Ulquiorra was about to give a scathing reply when he suddenly stopped and sighed. Smiling slightly, he shook his head.

"Do you realize what just happened?" He said, his voice much calmer.

Taken aback she replied, "What?"

"We just had our first fight."

She blinked a couple of times and then smiled, "Yes we did. I guess that makes us a real couple, huh?"

"I wasn't aware we were 'unreal' prior to this."

"No, that's not what I meant. They say all couples fight, apparently it's a sign of a healthy relationship." She chewed her lower lip, looking at the salt shaker. From across the table, Ulquiorra leaned forward and pried her lip off her teeth.

"Stop hurting yourself."

"That doesn't hurt." She said absently. "Oh now I feel bad for getting irritated at you. But I am just so nervous I cannot take it. What with him coming back, all the things we have planned and now Shinji throwing that curveball...I feel like I am about to burst I am so anxious."

Sighing Ulquiorra got up from his seat, walked around the table gesturing her to scoot over to the side and took his seat next to her. He draped his arm across her and said,

"It's alright to be scared. Your nervousness is to be expected. I am anxious too. Normally I never display my anxiety but it was ridiculously easy to show it to you."

She smiled and put her head on his shoulder, "Ulquiorra, what would we do if this plan succeeds, if we are able to bring his truth out in front of everyone in Las Noches, then what?"

Ulquiorra had asked this question to himself several times in the last few days.

"Then I intend to unleash my wrath on him."

She sighed and closed her eyes, so she heard the waitress come over to take their orders.

* * *

><p>It was perhaps for the better that Orihime had stormed out of the school when she had because being in Ulquiorra's company in the cafe had helped her frayed nerves immensely. Tatsuki's text message had also helped, it had read:<p>

I know I didn't say anything at that time, but I trust your decision. He is the right one for you, I can see it, so I am there with you, no matter what.

For the first time Ulquiorra felt a small bit of admiration for the black haired girl. He knew she didn't like him and it must have been against every instinct of hers to not react like Ichigo Kurosaki. She had actually decided to support her friend, no matter what. He thought that maybe she wasn't as bad as he had first thought her to be.

The two of them sat in the cafe for a while and decided that probably going to Las Noches a little earlier than usual would only work to their benefit, making their lie seem more believeable. At the gates of the sprawling mansion, Ulquiorra buzzed themselves in. Once the large gates had closed behind them, the two of them were joined by Grimmjow, who grabbed Orihime by her elbow and gently guided her away to where she needed to be as Ulquiorra went to Aizen's office.

Ulquiorra stood outside the door, carefully composing his face into his usual expressionless mask. He closed his eyes and forced all thought out of his mind save what he was supposed to do to kick the plan into action. This was a vital part and he had to get it absolutely right. Taking a deep breath, he knocked.

"Come in." A silky voice answered, a voice he knew only too well.

"Good evening, my lord." He said in his usual monotone.

"Good evening, Ulquiorra. How are you?"

"I am doing well my lord, thank you for asking. I trust your endeavour was successful." It was taking all of his willpower to stand there, pretend to be his loyal servant when all he wanted to do was castrate the man.

"Oh yes, it went very well." Aizen smirked, "So how has my ward's behaviour been all this while?"

"Impeccable my lord."

"You see no reason to suspect her of any foul play."

"None yet, sir."

"Excellent. Very good. Thank you Ulquiorra, that would be all. Now if you could send Miss Inoue in, I have an urgent matter to discuss with her. You may go and wait in her room. She'll be there shortly."

This was exactly what Ulquiorra was hoping to hear and yet those words made his blood boil. Save a twitch in his right hand's fingers, nothing about him betrayed the intense anger he felt, however, he smoothly spoke the lines he had rehearsed over and over again.

"My deepest apology my lord, but Miss Inoue has been taken sick. I had the Sexta Espada take her to her room, where she is currently asleep."

"Oh is that so? That is most unfortunate then. Could you send her to me as soon as she gets up?"

"Certainly my lord." Ulquiorra gave a short bow.

"That'll be all."

"Thank you my lord." Ulquiorra bowed once again and stepped out of the room.

Outside he frowned, Aizen had agreed almost too easily. He had had Grimmjow and Orihime pretend as though the blue haired man was leading her away because she was sick, just so that they had witnesses in case Aizen wanted to check Ulquiorra's story. But Aizen had fallen for it, almost instantly. There was nothing to it. All he had to do now was wait and watch.

Aizen sat back on his chair and smiled. So did this love lorn Espada think he could keep Orihime away from him with such a feeble lie. No, that he would not allow. He wondered what exactly Orihime did to ensnare one of his best men into her trap, but it didn't take him long to figure it out. She had the body of a Goddess. So Ulquiorra had a taste of her and now wanted to keep her for himself. Well he'll show those two. He wasn't the Lord and Master of Las Noches for nothing. He was going to show that insolent Espada who was in charge. He was going to beat the young man within an inch of his life, claim Orihime in front of his eyes before he killed him. He smirked as he stood up from his chair, not knowing that he was walking towards his own doom.


	25. The Beginning of the End

So I finally decided to break the climax into two chapters. It's short but I thought it's better to be presented in two short parts than one mega chapter (which I find confusing sometimes). Therefore this is really the penultimate chapter. Aizen's getting what he deserves and boy I had fun writing this. You'll also get a peek into 'THE PLAN'- finally!

So without further ado I'll let you get on with the chapter. As usual, read and review. :)

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><p><strong>Chapter 24- The Beginning of the End<strong>

Orihime was chewing her fingernails as she was growing steadily paler. Grimmjow cast a look at her as though he wanted to tell her to calm down but somehow the words got lost somewhere in his system and all he ended up doing was opening his mouth and closing it several times. He really didn't know what to say to her. He tried to think what he would be going through, on the brink of events that could possibly lead to his tormentor of ten years getting what was coming to him and found himself drawing blank. He couldn't imagine what it was like to suffer any kind of abuse for ten consecutive years. He had seen a lot of things in his life, many horrors, but this delicate looking girl standing next him had lived a life that was a living nightmare. He couldn't imagine what it had done to her, physically as well as emotionally. On some level he understood the fifth Espada's reaction. The truth was too terrible to accept and Nnoitra's brain refused to process it therefore he was looking at restoring the mental peace that had been rudely shattered. Grimmjow wished he could do something to restore his own mental peace as well and he hoped he could do so today.

Outside the room, Nnoitra sat, his face sans the perpetual toothy smile that was his trademark. To say he was in two minds would be an understatement. His instincts told him to believe Ulquiorra and Ms Inoue, but he just couldn't believe it. Lord Aizen had always been so polite, so soft spoken, how could he have had such a horrible side to him? It just was not possible. But he couldn't deny the obvious signs of abuse that he had seen on Ms Inoue's back. A part of him still believed that it was someone else who was responsible for it, despite the convincing arguments that Ulquiorra and Grimmjow had provided. He had decided to go with his instincts, they were never wrong, however he fervently wished that this one time, they were wrong.

Unable to stay at one place, with her nerves driving her crazy, Orihime started pacing around the room. She wished that somehow this wait was done with and she knew what was happening, one way or the other. Suddenly the door to the room was thrown open and Ulquiorra came into focus, with Nnoitra standing behind him, looking confused.

"We have a problem." Ulquiorra said, "He's heading to Ms Inoue's room instead."

"Shit!" Grimmjow muttered. "We don't have any cameras there, how are we going to expose him?"

"We have to go there, come on." Ulquiora said as the four of them ran out of Haruki's room. On the way to her own room, Orihime turned to Nnoitra and asked for the nth time,

"Haruki will be safe, right?"

"She's at Nnoitra's quarters, with his subordinate keeping an eye on her." Grimmjow reassured her yet again, "Don't worry. Let's handle this now."

The four of them ran at top speed to her room, and were just in time to catch a glimpse of Aizen entering her room. The four ran and stopped outside her room. Silently Nnoitra pointed at the window and the rest of them settled below it as Grimmjow slowly pried it open for them to see inside.

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><p>Aizen walked in Orihime's room, fully expecting to see the Fourth Espada and his step-daughter to be lying in each other's arms, having a steamy make out session. Instead he found an empty room. He looked around the pale yellow colored room taking in the three windows, two of which looked to the garden and one which opened to the corridor. The room was dominated by a double bed, a couch bed lay parallel to the bed under one of the windows looking out to the garden. On the other side of the bed was a closet whose door was also a full length mirror, one side of which was the door to the bathroom and the on the other side was a study table and chair which was under the window that looked out to the corridor. No where in the room could he see signs of the two anywhere.<p>

"Princess?" he said in a sing song voice as he cocked his head to his side, "Where are you?"

He walked over to the bathroom, flung open the door and peered inside, "Doll? You are hiding from daddy? You don't want to give him his 'welcome home' treat?"

Outside Ulquiorra scrunched his face in revulsion as Grimmjow looking confused mouthed 'Daddy?' and Nnoitra was sitting with his mouth open. Orihime had put her hands on her ears in an effort to block out the horrible voice of her nightmares. They heard a loud crash and the three Espadas peeped in the room to see what happened. Aizen had thrown the chair away and was now peering under the table.

"You better come out soon girl and I will go easy on you, otherwise you will have a tough time, I promise." He continued to look for her in the room as he said, "Where are you? Do you think you can hide from me for long? Come out, now. You have stayed away from dad for long, don't you want to show him how much you love him? Come on out, let me taste that fabulous body of yours."

Orihime curled up into a ball, eyes tight shut, hands on her ears, mouth open in a silent scream as she shivered uncontrollably. Both Ulquiorra and Grimmjow moved over to her noiselessly and put an arm around her. Nnoitra was staring at her looking as though someone had blotted out all of his blood. Suddenly he stood up, his eyes still on the crouched girl, as his hand curled up into a tight fist. Before either of the two Espadas crouched on the floor could realize what had happened, the fifth Espada walked straight into the room. The two of them exchanged a quick look. There was nothing to it, they had to back up their comrade. They made Orihime lean on the wall and bolted inside the room.

"Nnoitra?" Aizen said, looking surprised, "What are you doing here? Where is Haruki?"

Wordlessly the tall man walked over to him and punched him squarely on his nose, breaking it instantly.

"Whad da hell do dink you are doing?" Aizen muttered through a mouthful of blood.

Nnoitra didn't bother to reply as he aimed a kick between the man's legs. Aizen however had anticipated this move and jumped back just in time. Consequently all Nnoitra ended up kicking was the air. However, he wasn't the fifth Espada for nothing. He brought his leg down, spun on his heel to use the other leg to kick Aizen on his stomach, winding him and making him go down on the ground on all fours. As he was executing his last maneuver, Ulquiorra and Grimmjow burst into the room. Grimmjow held the livid Espada around the waist, stopping him from attacking Aizen anymore.

"Leave me Sexta," Nnoitra screamed, "I wanna kill this damn bastard!"

"I know, I do too," Grimmjow said as he strained to hold the taller man, "but someone else has more right than all of us."

Aizen got up from the floor, wiping blood from his face and he looked at the three Espadas standing in front of him, each looking at him angrily.

"Whad is going on?" Aizen asked.

"Take a guess." Grimmjow hissed, "Your game's up Aizen Souske."

He looked at the three of them, unsure of what had happened till his eyes fell on the fourth figure standing by the door, breathing heavily, leaning on the door frame, as if needing the support to merely stand upright.

"I see." Aizen said, spitting out the remaining blood from his mouth, "Now I get it. It's that girl isn't it? Three of my most loyal Espadas? What did you do girl, how did you get these three on your side? You have been very busy haven't you, you little slut?"

Orihime looked at him stunned, her face devoid of all color, as she shrunk further.

"YOU ARE SICK!" Grimmjow and Nnoitra screamed.

For the first time, Aizen realized that these men, who were lethal weapons when they were at his side, were very dangerous enemies. A very real chill ran down his spine as he saw murder in the eyes of the men he thought he owned.

Unknown to him, Ulquiorra had thought several steps ahead, modifying his original plan, which had been to broadcast Aizen's truth to all the Espadas. Grimmjow, who was in charge of the security of Las Noches had put a camera and mic in Haruki's room and had put a few loud speakers and a huge monitor in the Espada quarter which could be activated by a remote Grimmjow had in his pocket. But when Aizen had started to walk towards Orihime's room, Ulquiorra had to think quick and he had come up with a modified version of his original plan. As they were crouching next to the window, Ulquiorra had started a conference call on his cell phone with all the Espadas who were now all listening to the events taking place in the room. Thus, Ulquiorra stood silently, waiting for the inevitable to happen. All he had to do, was give the Espadas a location. Therefore he spoke for the first time,

"Why are you here in Orihime Inoue's room?" He asked, his voice loud enough to carry over to the phone.


	26. The nightmare ends

Here is the final chapter of the epic story. The conclusion of the events happen here. There is also an epilogue which will tell you what happens after this. All in all, I sincerely hope that this conclusion satisfies you. It satisfies me because Aizen gets what was due :)

Apologies for the late update, have been insanely busy with life. As usual, read and review.

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><p><strong>Chapter 25- The nightmare ends<strong>

Szayel stood with his phone held to his ears, unable to believe what he was hearing when a knock sounded on his door. Glad to have something else other than listen to the sickening monologue of Aizen, he opened the door to find Aaroniero standing with a finger on his lips and the other hand holding up a paper on which was written "Starrk's quarters, now." Szayel could see the phone kept on speaker and clipped on his waist. He nodded and Aaroniero continued walking, presumably to the other Espada's quarters. Szayel reached Starrk's quarters around the same time as Grimmjow was pulling Nnoitra away from killing Aizen. His guess had been right, Aaroniero had indeed gathered everyone in Starrk's quarters. Szayel could see his anger, disbelief and disgust mirrored in everyone's faces. Hallibel quickly took the paper from Aaroniero and scribbled "Where?"

The Primera Espada held up a hand, confident that Ulquiorra would come up with something that would give them an idea of their location and shortly, Starrk's faith in the Cuatro Espada proved right as everyone heard Ulquiorra's voice say,

"Why are you here in Orihime Inoue's room?"

None of the Espadas missed the slight quiver in Aizen's voice as he said "I do not owe any explanation to any of you."

"Like hell you don't" Grimmjow's raised voice could be heard saying, "You come in here, thrash the whole room, say those words and you say you don't owe an explanation?"

Starrk had heard enough. He looked at all the gathered Espadas and nodded. It was the signal they were waiting for. As one being, the remaining seven Espadas walked out of the Espada quarters and towards Orihime Inoue's room. No one noticed the silver haired man standing in the shadows.

* * *

><p>"Looks like you three have forgotten your station." Aizen said either emboldened by the lack of action from the three men standing in front of him, or as a last ditch attempt to save himself.<p>

Before any of them could respond, a shaky voice said, "Shut up."

All of them looked at Orihime who was now pushing herself off the door, although it looked like it took all her strength to do so.

"Shut up." She said, her voice slightly stronger this time, "They haven't forgotten their 'station', they are going to remind you of something that you forgot ages ago." She was getting her strength back slowly as she said the words she had been dying to say all these years, "Or maybe you never had it in the first place, sexually assaulting a six year old, raping a nine year old, do you even realize what you have done to me? You ask what did I do to get your three most loyal Espadas on my side? Nothing. I just formed a bond with them, a human bond. But someone as depraved as you would never get that. Do you even realize that you took my innocence from me before I even knew what was it that you took from me? You took every shred of happiness that was there in my life, ever. You took my mother, my chance at a normal life, my laughter, my ability to trust...everything! And for what? To satisfy your lust! I am not your sex toy Aizen Souske!"

"Rape you, you say?" Aizen replied, his own eyes flashing with anger, "If it's true that I forced myself on you, then why didn't you fight back?"

"I WAS SIX!" Orihime screamed, "I had no idea what is happening, let alone the fact that I am supposed to fight back."

She saw Aizen's eyes widen as some shadows fell on the floor and then felt a hand on her shoulder.

"There is no point trying to say those words to him, Ms Inoue." Harribel said quietly. "Why don't you step back as we speak to him, in the only language that he understands."

"Oh but do watch this Orihime," Szayel added, with a maniacal gleam in his eyes, "I believe you will enjoy the show."

Barragan was the next to step in, although he didn't say a thing, he looked at her with eyes that had so much pain in them that the tears that weren't shed till now came freely. Yammy, Aaroniero and Zommari followed him, none of them meeting her eyes. Lastly, Starrk stepped in. He looked at Aizen long and hard and then turned to Orihime and said,

"I am sorry madam that it took you so long to trust the Espada. We are in the employment of Aizen Souske, yes, but our first and foremost duty is towards humanity. We as a group never have and never will stand by quietly when an innocent is victimized, no matter who the perpetrator is. I wish you had approached us earlier. I see your lack of trust in us as a collective failure on our part and on behalf of every Espada, I apologize deeply. With your permission madam, we will now do a small thing that might go some way in healing your wounds."

Orihime looked around, wide eyed, not believing what she was seeing or hearing. All she could manage was, "How?"

"Ulquiorra had us all on a conference call all this while, we have heard all we needed to hear." Starrk replied. "Now, if we may?"

Orihime nodded, still in a bit of a shock. However, before any Espada could do anything, a smooth laugh interrupted them.

"My oh my, what do we have here? A full blown mutiny?" Ichimaru Gin stood, leaning on the doorway, his arms crossed across his chest, his face set in his perpetual expression of close eyed smile.

"You better stay away from this, Gin." Grimmjow said.

"Gin," Aizen said, the panic in his voice evident, "help me."

"Whatever for?" Gin asked, without changing his expression.

Every occupant of the room looked at him incredulously.

"Oh! Looks like I surprised some people out here. But hey, I have always enjoyed dramatics, and what more dramatic situation than this to drop my final bomb."

"What are you talking about?" Zommari asked the question everyone wanted an answer to.

"Let me introduce myself properly, I am Ichimaru Gin a detective at the Karakura Police Department, on an undercover mission in Las Noches to uncover all the illegal activities that goes on here. Having gathered all the evidence I needed, I was planning on arresting you tonight, but looks like I'll have to arrest you earlier."

No one knew exactly how to respond to Gin's startling revelations.

"You did a thorough background research on me when you employed me, didn't you?" he said addressing Aizen directly, "But you never realized that my background was a complete fabrication."

"So, you will arrest me now?" Aizen said, hoping that that way he would be able to escape the Espada.

"Actually, I just came here to ensure that you are alive when I arrest you" he paused, looked at his watch and said "fifteen minutes from now. For the next fifteen minutes, I am blind, deaf and mute."

Saying so, he stepped away from the door frame and closed the door, locking Aizen with the very angry Espadas.

For the next fifteen minutes Orihime watched her tormentor of ten years being pummeled by each of them one after another. She watched the whole thing with a strange fascination, not feeling a shred of pity for the man who was now covered in blood and was screaming for mercy. With every blow, she felt as though a band that was secured tightly across her chest was loosening slightly and she could breathe a little more. Every blow freed her, bit by bit. She noticed that all this while, Ulquiorra hadn't landed a single blow. When everyone else was done, he stepped forward with a knife in his hands. He crouched next to the figure lying on the floor in a bloody mess and whispered something into his ears before holding him in place with his knee, taking his wrist in his hand and slashing his wrists multiple times, eliciting an ear splitting scream from the man every time the knife went through the skin. After about ten slashes on each of his wrists, Ulquiorra stood up and stepped back. Almost simultaneously, the door opened and Gin stepped in.

"Tch, you look like shit," he said, "but then who cares. Aizen Souske, hope you are conscious because I am about to read out your rights to you, I am hereby placing you under arrest. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say now can and will be used against you in the court of law." Gin quickly placed the handcuffs on him and turned to the Espada.

"My partner, Kuchiki Byakuya would be here shortly, but let me inform you, I will have to place you all under arrest as well. None of you exactly posses a clean record."

To his surprise, all of them nodded.

"I will try and see what I can do to reduce your sentences, I may ask some of you to turn material witness against him," he turned to look at Aizen, "Oh I can't believe this! He's passed out? What a piece of shit! Anyway, as I was saying, the ones who have a really nasty record, like the first six, namely Starrk, Barragan, Hallibel, Ulquiorra, Nnoitra and Grimmjow, I may have to ask you all to become material witness against him and I might be able to reduce your sentences. I am sure Byakuya will help me in this matter."

"And what about Miss Haruki?" Barragan asked, "With all of us gone, what happens to the threat she received?"

"Oh she'll receive Police protection. As it is, we are almost certain that one of Aizen's political rivals was behind the attack. But, with Aizen gone, Haruki is in no danger. The guy got what he wanted without having to do anything, why will he harm Haruki or Orihime. However, we intend to take him into custody as well."

"What about Tosen?" Yammy asked.

"He's already under arrest." Gin replied.

"Who takes care of these two girls?" Hallibel asked.

"Kuchiki Byakuya, who's also the older brother of Ms. Inoue's friend will take over the role of their guardian for the time being, till a proper arrangement is done." Gin said.

"Well, that just about settles everything, we should all go and wait for the police to come and take us. Also, we should leave two people alone, I am sure they have a few things to say to each other." Grimmjow said pointedly.

One by one, each Espada stepped out, Yammy carrying the unconscious Aizen, none too gently, the rear being brought up by Gin. Orihime stood in one corner of her room, staring at the only other occupant in the room, the man she loved, the man who had finally freed her from her nightmare and the one who was now going to pay the price for it. Orihime couldn't stop crying. Ulquiorra stepped over to her, wiped her tears with his thumb and said,

"Don't. The time for your tears is up. Now it's time for you to smile."

"How? With you gone?" she said amidst sobs.

"I am not going away forever. You heard what Gin said, I will turn into a material witness. It's just a matter of time."

"I cannot stay without you." She said holding him tightly.

"Hime, please don't. I probably won't be seeing you for a while. Do you want me to go with the image of your teary face?"

She shook her head against his chest, wiped her tears and with a smile looked at him.

"I love you." He whispered.

"I love you too."

He slowly lowered his lips on hers.

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><p><strong>Author's note:<strong> Don't shoot me. Epilogue is there. What Ulquiorra whispers in Aizen's ears "Let me show you what she did to herself every time after you left."


	27. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Gin, true to his words, pulled some strings so that the Espada got off light. Starrk earned a sentence of five years. Barragan and Hallibel earned a sentence of three years. Ulquiorra, Nnoitra and Grimmjow each got two years. Zommari and Szayel got eighteen months. Aaroniero and Yammy got an year each. Tosen, who was deeply involved in the illegal activities of Aizen got a sentence of thirty years. Aizen however earned a hefty sentence of sixty five years for his illegal activities, and double life imprisonment for the murders of Kasumi and Sora Inoue, so that Aizen was locked away behind the bars and in high security prison for the rest of his life. Gin had been careful enough to drop the word of his pedophilia tendencies to the jailer, who in turn wasted no time in spreading the rumor through the inmates of the prison. Aizen never knew a day of happiness again in his life and twenty years after his imprisonment died a premature death succumbing to various repeated injuries sustained in the prison.

During the trial, the world came to know that Orihime was the step daughter of Aizen and therefore the judge ruled her to be the heir of 50% of Aizen's legal businesses. Orihime who celebrated her seventeenth birthday shortly after the arrests, took over Las Noches and the legal businesses once Aaroniero and Yammy were released. With their help, she managed to start running the business and take care of Haruki. All the Espadas, with the exception of Barragan who wanted to lead a quiet life with his family, joined Las Noches again, but this time in slightly different roles. Starrk and Hallibel were sent to the locations that were out of Karakura town to look after the work there. Nnoitra became Orihime's right hand man. Grimmjow was yet again in charge of Las Noches' security. Zommari, Aaroniero and Yammy resumed their duties as body guards, only this time, they were no longer required to kill anyone. Szayel was in charge of the health of the residents of Las Noches and the education of Haruki. He was slowly moulding her to become a doctor.

Ulquiorra helped Orihime with the business and upbringing of Haruki. The two of them had decided that they would give her a normal childhood, something that both of them had been denied. Haruki and the business had become their top priorities and they put off their own marriage till they were certain that she had grown up to be a normal and able person. When she was fourteen, Haruki was told the truth about Orihime and why Aizen was really behind the bars. Turned out that despite Orihime's protectiveness, Aizen had in fact touched Haruki in ways that the child wasn't quite comfortable with and she hadn't quite forgotten it. Although it had taken her some time, but eventually she came to accept everything. At the age of sixteen, she put her foot down and insisted that she wanted to see her sister and Ulquiorra married. The marriage was an elaborate affair and was something everyone would remember for a long time.

All in all, with Aizen Souske gone, Las Noches was one big happy family.

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><p><strong>Author's note: <strong>And with that my 101 page story comes to an end. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for all the support and encouragement that you have shown to me all this time. Without your support and guidance this would not have been possible.

Now I will concentrate on my other fic "I see you" and also start working on the collection of One Shots that I have decided to name "Flying high" as suggested by Anna Katelena1 and Lilarin. Someone asked me, what about Grimmjow and Nel's story? In case you are wondering as well, that will be addressed in the one shots. So till the next update- ciao.


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